Twenty Years Later
by AdamF
Summary: Years after Cloud and company saved the world, it's become an uneven place. A cult in Mt.Nibel worship Sephiroth. Rufus has raised Shinra back to the top. Marlene leads a rebellion, Tifa's gone, and Cloud's given up on people. But things are changing...
1. Goodbye old man

The room was small, and it was dark. It smelled like any other filth ridden bathroom in the slums would. Old and stale - like a carton of milk that's out-lived its expiration date. A single seventy-five watt light bulb (although the layer of dirt encasing it made it look like a twenty watt.) swayed back and forth over the center of the room. A cockroach darted from spot to spot on the dirty floor aimlessly. It scurried over to the underside of the sink that hung in the lower left corner of the room, pausing next to a large black boot. The cockroach must have had lady luck on its side - because if it were any other day, his pointless journey would have came to an unsuspected end right there. On _this_ day though, the owner of the boot was currently in a bit of a trance.

Cloud Strife stood hunched over the sink, his arms extending straight down, allowing his fingers to grip the porcelain edges tightly. His head hung low - his eyes stared off into nothing. At the moment, he wasn't in the slum bathroom. He was in Aeris' church in Midgar, and he was surrounded by everyone - and every_thing_ - he had ever loved. His eyes drifted around the warm churches large room. Tifa. Barret. Red XIII… everyone. They were smiling, and he was happy. He cringed a bit. The last time he ever was.

He lifted his face to the mirror. His dreamy look shifted into a narrow-eyed, concentrated stare. He wasn't in Aeris' church. Not anymore. He was in a scummy bathroom in the slum sector of Midgar, and twenty years had passed since the day in his head. He looked angrily at himself.

_ Why do you do that to yourself? It's cruel…_

He almost had to laugh at his own face. What once would have been a mean stare that could have sent a chocobo running back to its stable, was now just a pathetic old mans worn and wrinkled face. Tight lines pulled at the corner of his aging blue eyes. At least they used to be blue. They, like the rest of him, had seemed to fade away now - leaving two dusty, gray/blue marbles in their place. His hair was shorter now, and the once bright blonde had also faded off, into a sickly-looking pale yellow color. Strands of gray were starting to show themselves around his roots. It should have made him sad. It should have told him that he needed to get out of the hero business, and go off to some old-folks retirement home to live out the rest of his days getting sponge baths and playing shuffle board. It _should_ have told him he was just too old to be trying to save the world.

But it didn't.

He accepted it. It was just the planet's way of trying to slow him down. A new challenge of sorts. He looked at his arms sticking out of his vest. _What once was strong is now flabby. _His eyes floated towards his hair. _What once was spiky is now dull. _Then, his eyes locked onto their reflection in the mirror. _But what was once a hero… still is._

And with that thought, he sharply jerked himself to a proud stance. His hand found its way over to the side of the sink, grabbing an old friend that was leaning up against the tiled wall. His sword. The only thing he had that he could truly count on anymore. Sometimes, he wished he was more like it. If its age began showing, if it's blade had began to dull, all he had to do was sharpen it right back to its youth.

He smiled at the thought. _Keep dreaming Cloud. In the meantime, there's work to be done. _ With one swift movement that hadn't aged a bit, he swung his sword around to his backside and slid it into it's sheath. He picked up his arm and waved to his reflection in the mirror. He was saying goodbye to the old man who had doubted himself. There was no room for that sort of thing on the battlefield… doubts would only get him killed. He turned and headed to the door, pulling it open as he got there. The stench of the Midgar slums was a welcome scent to his nose. Anything was better than the rotten stink of the bathroom. As he began stepping out, he noticed something under his foot. He shifted the boot to the side a bit and looked down at the small black cockroach who had worked its way back over to that side of the room. He waited as the cockroach scurried out into the streets of the slums. Cloud grinned. _I don't blame ya, buddy._

He caught a fleeting glimpse of the old man in the mirror as he walked out of the room, and then he was on his way.


	2. History and the visitor

Cloud stepped out into the crowded streets of the (now re-built) sector seven Midgar slums. Maybe once, ten years ago or so, he would have had to burry himself in a cloak to move around the city so freely without being hounded by civilians and their children, asking him to tell stories of saving the world. He would have had to fight off the New Shinra Army (NSA) at every corner. He would have had shady eyes following him from the shadows. But not anymore. No one gave a damn anymore. He wasn't "Hero Cloud" to them anymore… he was a bum that had turned his back on society when it needed him the most. He didn't care. He'd rather be "Outcast Cloud". It was easier to do business that way.

He took notice of everything as he slowly twisted and turned his way through the crowded streets. Things weren't always so… full. After meteor hit, life seemed to slow down to a crawl for a little while, but it didn't take long for things to pick back up. And boy did they pick back up. "_The planet's dyin' Cloud."_, someone had once told him - he didn't remember who. If it was true then, it certainly wasn't now. There used to be spaces between towns. Wide-open, long spaces that filled the way from one place to another. Things weren't like that anymore. The planet was under a serious population crisis.

What was once a long trail of nothing, the road from Midgar to Kalm was now occupied by two, fully populated towns. It was like that all throughout the planet. Where it was livable - people lived. It was meteor, and the events around it, that made things this way. "Yay!" The people had shouted. "Meteor is gone! Sephiroth is dead! Shinra is no more!" Everyone was so damn exited. So exited that all the evil in the world had seemingly been defeated. Everyone wanted to celebrate by bringing new life into this fresh, good world. So they did.

_If there's a way to make a profit, evil will be created. Even if it has to create itself from nothing, _Cloud thought, as he pushed past two large men in armor_. New Shinra Army… what a joke. _

The remains of Shinra didn't take long to resurface themselves. They emerged shortly after the Geostigma incident, claiming the planet needed a government to ensure such travesties did not happen again. The people agreed. They signed their own freedom away. What started as a democracy, quickly turned to a dictatorship. Oh sure, there would be voting once every five years, not that it mattered much. Former Shinra president Rufus was at the head of the whole thing, of course. He earned the peoples sympathy by parading around in a wheelchair. (Which Cloud knew he didn't need) He gained their respect by making promises of a new world for them and their children to live in. And after a long, drawn-out campaign, Rufus Shinra had become the first leader of the new world. Twenty years later, and he still had the title.

The first five years had gone by, and things didn't seem that bad. Maybe Rufus was the man to lead the people into a new era. Five years after that, and people started to realize what was happening, but by then, it was too late. The New Shinra Army had been formed, and democracy had died. The government the people had once all agreed they needed, was reduced to a puppet show - and President Rufus was pulling the strings. He taxed whatever he wanted, _when_ever he wanted, and had no troubles raising them either. He claimed the money was going towards the betterment of the planet, but then again, he could have claimed anything. There was nothing anyone could do, now that he had his army formed. An army that sheepishly accepted any command their leader was to give them. There was nothing anyone could do.

Except their all-mighty hero and savior of the planet… Cloud.

But no such hero came. The memories of that period of his life were as vivid as if they had happened yesterday. He heard their cries - but it wasn't his war to fight… he felt betrayed. He felt like he was a puppet again, but this time it wasn't Sephiroth pulling the strings, it was the people. He wasn't theirs. He owed nothing to them, and yet, they always called his name whenever something went wrong… and _only_ when something went wrong. It was in that moment he had stopped caring… when his _true_ hibernation would begin. He stayed hidden from the people and the government for ten years, no contact with anyone. He hunted his own food… fetched his own water, and all but forgot the life he had once know. And he probably would have finished the rest of his days in hibernation… alone, but then there was that day…

Cloud ducked into an alleyway, getting off the busy streets. He felts too many curious eyes on him. They hadn't remembered him yet… but it wouldn't take them long. "The hero has returned to help us!" He could almost hear them chanting. _No… I'm not here for another war… and I couldn't give a damn about it, either. _He pressed his back up against a wall and tilted his head up. His mind drifted back to that day. The first human contact he had in… a long time.

Her muscles strained as she yanked the reins of the chocobo back, trying to gain some control over the beastly yellow bird. She feared if he did not calm down, she would be flipped straight off him, and right now, that would _not_ be good. Not in the middle of a vicious sand storm that had completely engulfed them, and reduced their sight to only a few yards in any given direction. Fortunately, the girl on the chocobo was suited for just such an occasion. She was dressed from head to toe in a long, cream colored robe. She wore a hood of the same color that covered her entire face, leaving a thin slit for her eyes (which were shielded by a thing pair of goggles). Not like _that_ was doing her any good at the moment. Picking a direction had become a guessing game. She feared deeply that she would wind up accidentally steering them straight into Corel prison, and the thugs there would harass her and demand money… maybe even keep her there against her will. She shook the thought of her head. Right now she needed all her concentration on keeping the wild chocobo from having a heart attack. Her arms were getting weak, fighting the beast. She knew it wouldn't be long before she completely lost control and was stranded in the midst of a vicious sand storm. Maybe Corel prison wouldn't be such a bad thing to run into after all.

Then a horrible thought crossed her mind. What if her contact had been wrong, or worse, lied to her. Or even worse, lied to her because he worked for Shinra. What if he had sent her out her knowing full-well that there would be a sand storm. _I've failed you Tifa. _She thought. _I've failed you._

But just when all hope had been lost, there it was, just as the contact said. A large rock that shot out of the earth at a perfect, sloping angle. The girl squinted her eyes to make sure the sand wasn't playing tricks on her. It wasn't. She pulled the reins of the chocobo tightly to the left, causing the yellow bird to veer off in that direction. When she was but a few feet from the beat-up looking wooden door, she swiftly jumped from the side of the chocobo, holding on to the reins. She pulled him to a stop and then led him to as close to the door as possible, before tying them to a nearby jagged rock that was sticking out of the earth. The sand storm wasn't so bad under here, he would be fine. She braced herself with a deep breath, then slowly entered the door.

Inside was a long, dark hallway with rocky walls. At the end was some light… a room, probably. She started towards it cautiously. She wasn't sure how mentally stable he was going to be. It had been so long since anyone-

Her thought was abruptly cut short. A strong arm wrapped around her throat, another yanked her right wrist behind her back and twisted it into an uncomfortable position. Her left hand shot up to try and pull the arm off her neck, but the arms hand caught her other wrist quickly.

Completely defenseless within five seconds. At least he was still sharp.

"Cloud, stop!" She cried out from under her hood. Within a second, he had released her, spinning her around to face him and pushing her backwards - ripping off her goggles somehow in the process. Her hand automatically dropped to her side for the small dagger she had brought along. She didn't intend to use it, but once again, she wasn't sure how mentally stable he was. Not like it mattered, the dagger wasn't there. She looked down at the empty space it once occupied, then up to him, who was holding it at his side.

"Friend or foe?" He asked, staring hard at what little of her face he could see.

"Friend." She answered quickly.

"Funny, I don't have any friends. Not anymore."

"Cloud it's me." She said, pulling off the hood. "Marlene."


	3. Memories

-1_Memories. They have a way of getting away from you._

Cloud and Marlene sat across from each other in Clouds small, dark home. He couldn't believe how much Little Marlene had changed. She went off and got herself grown up quick, or at least Cloud thought so. Not the confused child he had known all those years ago - no. This was a young woman now. A beautiful young woman to boot. Her long, reddish-brown hair softly framed her sharp-featured, intelligent looking face. She was so tall now… even taller than Cloud himself (by just a bit). His gaze shifted from her face to her gear. She had pulled off her protective sand clothing to reveal a tough looking outfit. It was a full-body suit, made from a heavy cream colored cloth and some sort of dark red leather. She wore a small holster on the inside of her right ankle, which housed a long blade. Another holster at her waist held a smaller dagger. Cloud looked straight into her eyes.

"Some sort of an anti-shinra resistance, I'm guessing."

It was the first words he really spoke since she revealed herself. His voice was low, and a bit frightening to Marlene. She didn't know whether to answer him or not. He hadn't really said it in a questioning manner. His silence afterwards told her otherwise.

"Yea." She finally spit out. _Oh, screw it. This is Cloud! I don't have to hide anything from him! _She thought. "Yea, Cloud! That's right! I'm all grown up, and now I'm with the resistance!" Her face went a little red immediately after she said the words. She thought her voice sounded like a childes. Like she was saying "Look mommy! Look how big I got! I'm a grown'd up!"

Cloud stared at her for another moment before dryly saying

"You look the part."

She stared back at him and wondered how stable he really was. He had aged, and not well. He was only in his forties, but could easily make his way into a sixties-only bar. If such a bar existed.

_Mako._ She thought. All that mako exposure probably messed him up somehow. She looked at him, staring at her with those cold blue eyes, that had seemed to lose their pigment. She shifted in her seat. He made her uncomfortable. Trying to break the tension, she grinned slightly and cockily said

"You should see me with my gunarm."

Clouds face, for the first time, changed. She thought maybe he was going to smile, but instead he just took a long, deep breath.

_Memories. They had a way of finding you again_.

"Like father, like daughter, I guess." He said, staring at the ceiling. She had enough of this little game.

"Look, Cloud I-

"I'm not joining any resistance Marlene." He cut her off, abruptly sitting up in his chair and looking at her. She was a bit surprised.

"I-

"I'm sorry. And I know, that doesn't mean much, but it's all I can give ya' kid." He said, his voice never leaving its steady low tone.

She stared at him, her brow frowned in concentration. Her eyes narrowed as she began to shake her head.

"When did you stop carrying?" Her voice was quiet, yet passionate.

"A long time ago."

"Why!?" She noticed she was yelling at him now, but she didn't care. "You owe me this Cloud! You owe my dad! You owe-

"That's when." He suddenly said, cutting into her shouting. She stopped and looked at him. "I stopped carrying when the world thought I owed myself to them. I don't."

Marlene bit her lip, suddenly fighting back tears. And for the second time, Cloud had made her feel like a child again. He nodded his head.

"That's when." He repeated.

Without another word, Marlene stood up and threw her desert robe back on. She yanked her hood from the table, spinning around and heading for the door. Cloud silently watched her go. Just before she was at the door that led back into the sand storm (which she wasn't even sure she could finer her way out of) she turned around to face him.

"They've got Tifa."

She watched him closely. At first, it looked like he was going to say something right away, but he stopped. Then his eyes just dreamily faded off into nothing. She waited a moment longer, then she spit air out of her nose in frustration, and spun around to face the desert.

"Marlene, wait."

She did.

_Memories. They could make you feel good. Make you feel alive again. Make you feel like there's still something worth fighting for._

"_Whose_ got Tifa?"

Marlene smiled.


	4. A Short Reunion

As Cloud strolled down an alley, looking for the house he was to meet his contact in, he took notice of his age. It had made him tired already, and he hadn't even done anything yet. _No… you're not that old. You're just out of shape._ The muscles in his legs had began to sore and stiffen. His back hurt a bit. He was old - there was no denying it. _Not too old to fight. _He hoped.

After a few more minutes, he had reached the house. More of a shack, really. It was low to the ground, blending in seamlessly with the rest of the alley. Dirty, of course, like everything else in the city had become. He let his eyes take a quick scan around him before pushing open the door and quickly darting inside. It was dark. He squinted into the back of the room, trying to make out the figure he thought he saw.

"You gonna stand there all day, or you gonna bring your spiky-ass over here?" The voice was low, grainy, a perfect fitting voice for the shack. It had changed, but none-the-less, it was recognizable. Barret.

As Cloud stepped further into the room, the hulking figure in the back became more and more distinct. When he was fully visible, something happened to Cloud that - at first - he didn't recognize. It had been so long. He fought it at first, but then accepted it.

For the first time in years, Cloud smiled.

"Alright, alright. Don't go getting all mushy on me, old man." Barret said, returning the smile. He was still like a giant bear, Cloud thought. He could be massive, and fierce - but when he wanted to, he could be gentle and caring. It was a quality Cloud had always admired about him. Sometimes, he wished his personality was as easily changeable.

"Barret… you look good." He said, taking a seat across from the table Barret was at. He was telling the truth. Barret looked a lot better than _he_ did. His hair had gone a little grey around the edges, and his figure had shrunk a bit, but he was still Barret. It was as if Cloud was ten years older than him (or more), even though Barret was actually the elder at the table.

"Wish I could say the same." Barret replied, giving Cloud a confused look. "What happened to you?"

"Guess aging just wasn't something I was good at."

"I'd say… you look like hell, Cloud."

Cloud heard the honest concern in Barrets voice. Although he appreciated it, it wasn't the time. There was business to be had. He leaned up in his seat.

"Where is she." He said, cutting to the point.

Barret nodded, accepting the inevitable question. He knew it would be asked, but he had hoped to speak to Cloud personally for a little longer.

"Cloud, I was thinking-

"Barret. Where do I go? Just tell me. We'll save the reunion for when we're _all_ here. All safe."

Barret sighed. "She's at the new Shinra tower. We have a way in… down through the sewers."

Cloud grimaced. He should have suspected his first job in twenty years would have been trudging through a disgusting sewer.

"And, I suspect this is a one-man job?"

Barret nodded.

"I'd love to go with ya, old buddy, but…" Barret started moving towards him from around the table, but he wasn't standing up. It was now, Cloud realized, Barret hadn't been sitting in a chair. He was sitting in a wheelchair. He watched as the, once powerful figure, wheeled it's way over to him slowly.

"Jesus Barret…" Cloud stated in shock. "What the hell happened."

Barret gazed coldly into the distance, as if trying to suppress some far-off memory.

"Had a little accident with the New Shinra Army a couple years back. Guess' I should be lucky they left me alive… a couple of buddies of mine weren't so lucky."

Cloud frowned as he shook his head. Twenty six years ago, the Shinra took his right arm. Now, all these years later, they had taken his legs. His air went hot in his lungs, his once-sore muscles now tightened. He was angry, and it made him feel alive. This whole time, he just wanted to help Tifa… now, he wanted to hurt Shinra as well. He stood up and began heading towards the door.

"They'll pay." He simply added as he reached for the door.

"Cloud." Barret called him. He turned to face him. Barret wheeled over to him and handed him a folded piece of paper. It was his route inside to the Shinra building, mapped out neatly. Cloud looked it over then tucked it into his pocket.

"You're the only one that knows about this?" He questioned.

"Yes." Barret answered. "I discovered the route years ago, always kept it as a sort-of… trump card, ya know. Figured I could count on you to be the only fool crazy enough to use it."

Cloud hesitated for a moment then turned to leave again.

"Cloud." Barret stopped him again. Cloud turned his head back. "Marlene is everything to me. She's all I got left. All I care about. I would do anything… _anything_, to keep her safe… you understand that, right?"

Cloud nodded.

"Good… because it's true. If anything was to happen to her, I'd lose something much more valuable than my arm, or my legs."

Cloud nodded again. He really did understand. He paused for another moment.

"I'll see you later… and so will Tifa." He said, before pulling the door open to the slums, and exiting. Barret watched him go, and as soon as he was outside, and the door was closed up again, he dropped his face into his hands and began shaking it.

A figure stepped out of a long, dark shadow in the corner of the room.

"You did good, Mr.Wallace." It said - it's voice as mysterious as it's figure.

Barret just kept shaking his head.

"I don't want her touched! Not EVER!" He suddenly yelled out.

"No, of course not." The voice soothed him. "Marlene will be safe. We won't mess with her again."

Barret simply continued to shake his head. It was so easy to sell-out your friend when you haven't seem him in twenty years. When he was there with you, face-to-face, it was the hardest thing to do you could imagine.

"Cloud…" He whispered under his breath. "I'm sorry."

Cloud swore under his breath as he pushed through the crowds of the slums again. Barret had lied to him. He didn't know why, but he had - and it was making him feel very uneasy. He noticed a trash can coming up. As he passed it, he crumpled up the map Barret had given him, and tossed it in. For all Cloud knew, it could have been bugged. The map was just too neatly drawn up for a right-handed man with no right hand. _Some_one else knew about it. _Someone _else had drawn it. He could have been over exaggerating the whole thing, and it was just Marlene who had drawn it - but why wouldn't Barret just say so. Cloud was older, but he wasn't stupid… not yet, at least. He'd find his own way into Shinras building… if Tifa was there at all.

Suddenly a myriad of possibilities swarmed his head. What if it was all a set-up? What if Marlene was in on it, as well? What if he was being watched right now - the Shinra army ready to pounce and take him out, just incase he was going to ever be a threat to them. _No. You're being paranoid, Cloud. Over a stupid map… you're friends need you right now, not some paranoid, rambling old fool. _Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of betrayal from his head. He had to know, _now_ - or it would drive him to insanity. He turned around sharply, and began heading back to the alley. He had to know… he had to.

"Barret!?" He shouted into the darkness of the room he had been in only minutes earlier. No answer.

He began stepping into the dark, when suddenly, every sense in his body grabbed a hold of him and forced him to duck. Just in time too, as a huge steel pipe wooshed past his head and crashed into the wall beside him, sending splinters of wood in every direction. He barely had time to catch a breath before he was rolling out of the way of another ferocious swing. The pipe struck the ground hard, colliding with the concrete floor and sending cracks out in every direction, like a piece of shattered glass. Whoever was swinging this thing was powerful. Freakishly, in fact.

Cloud rolled back into a crouching stance, only a few feet away from the pipe-swinging lunatic. His eyes darted around the room, looking for a weapon. It took him a few moments to realize the only weapon he needed was strapped to his back. Too long. The pipe-swinger charged at him, shoving the pipe he now held in a horizontal position into Clouds gut. Cloud felt every ounce of air forced out of his lungs as he was driven backwards - smashing into the wall behind him with incredible force. He cringed as the pain shot out from every spot on his body. The pipe-swinger rolled the metal rod up his gut, all the way to the underside of his chin - pushing it deep into his throat. Cloud struggled for air as his hands instinctively dropped his sword, and shot up towards the pipe to try and pry it away. It was no good. The man… whoever he was, was just too strong. Or maybe… _I'm just too old._

Cloud now got a look at his attacker through squinted eyes. His size matched his swing. He was probably about six and a half feet tall, with the muscles to back it up. He had slicked-back, black hair, that greasily wrapped around the backside of his ears. His smell reminded Cloud of the bathroom he was in earlier… stale and old - but now covered by some cheap cologne. The mixing of scents was disgusting. To top it off, the man was giving him a sick grin that reached from one pointy ear to the other. _So this is what death looks like…_

No… not yet it didn't. It took every bit of strength he had, but he managed to kick the man in the stomach hard enough to give him the room he needed to duck below the steel pipe. His head was barely below it as it crashed into the wall behind him. If his neck had still been there, it would have crushed it like a can. He used the moment to scoop up his sword and roll underneath the massive mans legs. He was on his feet and turned around in seconds, bringing his sword down at he mans back. The first swing of his sword in years… it felt good. It would have felt better if the man had not spun around at the last moment, and blocked it with the pipe. The explosion of steel against steel filled the room. The sword recoiled, unaffected. The pipe wasn't as lucky, as it had now been split down the middle - barely held together by a thin layer. If it was a few years back, the pipe would have been successfully cut, probably the man along with it. But it wasn't a few years back, and what Cloud lacked in strength, he had to make up for in knowledge.

The stunned man quickly ripped them apart, now holding two pipes. He laughed a bit as he began swinging them around. This was the part where Cloud was supposed to take up a defensive stance, and slowly back away from the wildly swinging pipes. He wouldn't be so predictable. He couldn't afford to be. Instead he shifted his stance closer to the left wall - the man shifting with him to stay in front of him. It was at that moment that Cloud charged at him, holding his sword straight-out in front of him in a stabbing position. The man swung his right hand to block the attack, then (like Cloud had hoped.) swung his left at Clouds head. Cloud ducked, letting the pipe strike the wall, and then quickly knocked the weapon out of the mans hand with the butt of his sword - sending it flailing across the room. In another fast movement, he grabbed the remaining pipe and pulled it downwards, flattening his sword out in front of him at eye level. The large man was pulled into a helpless position - one weapon gone, one held, and Clouds sword was now close enough to his throat to give him a shave.

What Cloud lacked in strength, he made up for in knowledge.

The man took deep, sucking breaths. His eyes were wide and his face rained sweat, as he stared at the small blonde man beneath him, who had rendered him defenseless. He let out a grunt of frustration.

"Save it." Cloud started. "Tifa, where is she?"

"Tifa who!?" He spit out quickly.

Too quick - like a trained answer.

Cloud pulled his arm down, forcing the blade to push a little deeper into the mans throat.

"Where." He repeated calmly. He was impressed with himself that he wasn't winded after the battle. Maybe he wasn't too old to be doing this after all.

"OK! OK! …she's at the shinra building!" The man said.

_Now he's just telling me what I want to hear._

Cloud pulled the arm even further, the blade now dangerously close to breaking the skin of the mans pulsing neck.

"I know the truth, and if you lie again, it will be the last lie you ever tell." His words were calm, steady. If he didn't have the man convinced to tell the truth by now, it would be pointless to try further. The black haired guy gave him a look, as if debating something. _Good._

"Alright man… they're holding her at Nibelheim."

_Nibelheim? _A flood of memories crashed into Clouds head. No time to focus on any of them.

"Why Nibelheim?" Cloud asked, shifting the blades angle as a reminder it was still there.

"I don't know man, that's all I know - I swear!"

Cloud narrowed his eyes onto the mans face, studying it. After a moment he nodded his head, the man was telling the truth.

"Barret… does he work for Shinra? Don't lie."

"W-Who?"

"The black man with a gun for an arm."

The man looked at him. He clearly didn't want to hand out anymore information. Clouds sword begged to differ.

"No." He finally said in defeat. "We followed his daughter here… waited till she left, then charged in and told him we'd kill her if he didn't cooperate."

Cloud felt a bit relieved. It was betrayal, but it wasn't dirty betrayal.

"What does Shinra want with me… and Tifa?"

"NO MORE INFO!" The man suddenly yelled. Cloud pressed the blade into his throat to calm him down. He realized he would have to kill him to get anything else from him.

"Thanks."

And with that, he quickly brought the butt of the sword into the side of the mans head, reducing him to an unconscious floor rug. Cloud stood, and brushed himself off.

_If no one was in on it… that means Tifa really is in trouble. That also means, right now - Marlene is the only one I can trust._

He gave the room a quick scan, stopping on the unconscious man.

_But where can I find her._

He sheathed his sword and left.


	5. The lucky hat

It was a crowded night at the _Calber Fastella _- a Shinra-owned nightclub, that was as exquisite as its name implied. Five dozen people or so occupied the large, smoky room - most of them citizens of the newly formed city the club was in - _Thaisan. _A mainly (but not exclusively) Shinra-occupied town on the outskirts of Midgar. A city built with the tax-payers money, mostly so the Shinra soldiers had a nice quiet town to live with their families in, outside of the crime-ridden streets of Midgar. The club had its fair share of crowds from night to night, but was particularly full on this one. Rex Arinthone - a general to the reformed Shinra army - was celebrating his final night of duty, before slipping into a quiet retirement right here in Thaisan itself.

The general sat in the back of the room at a large, round table with three other soldiers - armed with automatic machine guns. The table overlooked the entire club from its position - raised four feet higher, and sectioned off with finely-polished golden rails. The flashy red carpeting of the lower floor had been abandoned for a royal blue one with silver trimming, and golden silhouettes of an assortment of magnificent creatures and beasts. A single, diamond-coated chandelier hung above the table, watching over them like a divine blessing. A fitting seat for a retiring general.

Rex looked around the table, smiling at the friends surrounding him. Edward Batch - his oldest friend in the army and the quickest hands he had ever met. Herman Davis - the man posed to take his job. He had to admit they couldn't have found a better replacement. And Brale Theed - the youth of the table, but deceptively deadly. A fine soldier, and an even better pilot.

Three men he would trust his life with. He would trust his families lives with.

"To Shinra!" He suddenly bellowed out, raising his mug of beer to the heavens. "And retirement!" He added with a bit of a laugh. The three men laughed with him, as they saluted their mugs as well. The people on the lower floor - breaking away from their casual chatter and dancing - noticed their salute and began cheering. The majority, if not all of them, were middle to high class civilians. They didn't _feel_ the sting of President Shinras taxation. They didn't _get_ hassled in the streets by Shinra guards for unjust causes. To them, Shinra and its army were heroes - and General Arinthone was a king.

He acknowledged the crowd by tipping his mug to them, then took down the ale inside with a long chug. His comrades did the same. Almost as soon as he had placed the empty mug on the table, a woman was at his side.

"Refill General?" She asked politely, shyly smiling and tilting her head to the side.

Rex looked up at her. Above him stood an attractive woman with reddish brown hair tied back in a tight ponytail, wearing a black waitress's outfit.

"Sure sweetheart." He answered, handing her the mug.

"Oh, general!" She said, batting her eyelashes and picking up his empty mug.

_She'll earn her tip tonight. _Rex though as he smiled up at her.

"The rest of you boys will have to wait - generals first tonight." She said, giving Rex a wink.

_She'll earn more than that if she keeps this up._

And with that thought, she slowly walked down the stairs, and headed towards the bar at the opposite side of the room. Rex watched her the whole way, grinning all the while.

"Relaxed Mr. Arinthone." Edwards said, breaking his daze. "Have you forgotten Mrs. Arinthone?"

Rex let out a deep laugh. He knew Edward was right - yet - he felt his eyes go back to the waitress. There was something about her…

"So…" Brale began. "Our last night as a team."

Everyone at once began jeering at the young blonde man.

"Come on, Brale!" Herman said. "This is a night of celebration, not some sappy goodbye."

"Yea kid… plus, I'm sure Rex will be hanging around base all the time, anyway." Edward added, giving his general a smile.

"Guys." Rex started, a bit reluctantly. "I don't plan on disappearing, but I certainly do not plan on hanging around. President Shinra had hinted at that to me already. Twice. I'm guessing he wants me to hang out in the shadows, call the shots from afar - just not do any fighting. But what he, and all you guys, has to realize is, I'm done. Ten years is too much war for one man to see. I need this. I need to be with my family."

Everyone silently nodded.

"Besides, the war, for the most part, is over. Only a few more rebel dogs to be put down, and Shinra won't even need an army anymore. We can _all_ go home to our families."

More nods all around.

"Now… let's get back to celebrating." Rex stated with a wide grin, and instantly the mood was lightened back up. The man certainly was a general. On _and_ off the battlefield.

There new celebration was cut short.

"Aye there! General Abarabathrone!" An odd voice called out, butchering the generals last name.

All four men simultaneously looked to the stairs where the voice had originated from. Slowly wobbling his way towards them, was a young man. His hands pulled on the golden railing adjacent to the stairs, seemingly forcing his legs to find their way up them. He reached the top and nearly fell flat on his face, before wind milling his arms and catching his balance. Once he was steadied, he pointed at the general and gave a large, foolish grin.

"General! Tis' an honor, good sir! Pleasure to make your acquaintances'" He stated boldly, his tongue flailing about recklessly in his mouth as he spoke. The man was clearly drunk.

Edward began pushing his chair out to get up and remove the man, but was stopped by a gesture from Rex's large, commanding hand.

"This could be a laugh." He muttered to his comrade.

"If you say so." Edward replied, scooting his chair back towards the table.

"Make I ask, _good sir,_" Rex began sardonically. "Who I am making my _acquaintance_ too?

The man looked hurt, yet innocent - like a wounded puppy dog.

"General." He said in a matching tone, as he began hobbling his way to the table. "I'm offended!" And with that, he flopped into an empty chair - practically tipping it over.

Rex studied the strange new man, curiously. He looked to be about twenty five… too young to know better than to intrude on a soldiers table - drunk or not. He had uncombed, shaggy brown hair and a scruffy red bandana to hold it out of his face - which was desperately in need of a good shave. He wore flat-brown pants and a plain white shirt that was covered partially by a dirty, brown vest. Not common clothing in the town of Thaisan, where most of the snobby civilians paraded about in equally-snobby suits and dresses - competing with each other, most of the time, to see who can out-snob the other.

"You got pretty eyes, general… keep lookin' at me like that, and people will think we're in love." He said in a low, playful voice. The three lower-ranked soldiers at the table all threw their heads back in laughter. Rex went a bit red.

"That chandelier is one heck of a site to see, If I do say so myself." The man said as he suddenly gazed dreamily up at the large, diamond-coated circle above him. "Look's a little weak though…"

"Can I ask your name, stranger?" Rex asked in a professional manner, hiding his embarrassment.

"I ain't no stranger, general, and my name… heck, that ain't of no importance." The man began, sitting up in his seat. "My pop used to always say - he said - _folks get too caught up in names and titles. They forget what really matters. What matters is what's inside the names and titles. What matters is the people._" The man grinned. "You can't forget the people, general."

Rex frowned now. Something about the way the man said the final sentence - almost as if he'd completely sobered up in a heartbeat. However, the man burst out laughing at Rex's face and began slapping his knee. Rex eased up a bit.

"I tell you, general." He said between laughter. "Them eyes are hypnotizing. You sure maybe you ain't in love? Only time I seen eyes like that, someone was in love."

More laughter around the table.

"Let me tell you fellers a tale about me and old Rex here." The man began, loudly forcing his voice over the tables laughter. "OK, so we're down in Costa Del Sol, right?"

"What were you two doing down there?" Herman asked playfully, glancing at the generals face as if to say "This guy's out of his mind."

"Well, I do believe we were trackin us down a pair of chocobo thieves." He answered. "Caught a trail all the way from Junon harbor! Helluva trip, wasn't it general?"

Rex nodded, playing along, but losing interest fast. The rest of the tables laughter disagreed with him.

"So we get down there, right-

"How long it take ya?" Brale questioned amusingly.

"Longer than a Phoenix's tail, but that ain't important right now." More laughs. "So - we get there and we catch these two fellas in a hotel room, and I'd be damned, what do they have _in _the room with em'?

"The chocobos?" Herman answered between laughter.

"The chocobos!" The man repeated, tossing his arms in the air and putting on a silly face. The table was in stiches now, holding their guts and gasping for air. "OK, but the worst part is what these two fellas are doin _to_ the chocobos! I won't go into details, being at a dinner table and all - but let's just say them chocobos gonna put up a fight next time someone tries riden em', if ya catch my drift." Edward threw his head back and slapped his knee in amusement. Brale was clinging onto Hermans shoulder laughing wildly. "So me and the general walk in on the act, right - and Rex he goes-

Suddenly, as quick as a lightning spell, the man leaned over to Herman and yanked his gun out from his holster - then quickly did the same to Edward, who was on the opposite side of him. He slammed both machine guns down on top of the table hard. One pointing at Brale, the other at Rex himself.

"Nobody move."

The mens faces slowly shifted from laughter, to confusion, to shock.

"What the hell?!" Herman exclaimed as the shock faded to anger.

Rex sat silently at the opposite side of the table from the man - a cold fire burning in his eyes. He would have pulled his own weapon out, only it wasn't there.

_Something about that waitress…_

He cursed himself for being so sloppy. Last day on the job, and fooled by (undoubtedly) some rebel dogs. Across from him was no longer the drunken idiot who had staggered his way to the table. It was a gun-toting rebel, with fiercely focused eyes and an expression to match.

"Those eyes sure are pretty." The man said with a grin. The general did not return it.

"Impressive." Rex said nodding his head. "But stupid." He added with a sharp tone.

"Yea, maybe - regardless, I'm gonna need your keycard, general."

His keycard? How did this dog know he had a key-.

Then it hit him. A leak. Someone close in with the higher-ups. It had to be, being as only a handful of people knew about the secret detention center, hidden under the Thaisan Inn. A detention center in which only his keycard would open. A detention center _full_ of rebels.

"You give me the name of the source." Rex began calmly. "And I only arrest you under the charges of public disturbance."

The brown-haired man grinned.

"Names aren't important, general. It's what's inside the name that counts."

Rex went hot with rage. His fists balled up tightly - his throat ran dry. Air was rhythmically sucked into his throat and shot back out by a cannon.

"You won't leave this town alive, scum. I give my word on that."

"Yea, well - let's hope you're not a man of your word then. Now, the keycard."

Rex shot him a look before digging into his pocket and ripping out the small, plastic rectangle.

"So young for such a big job." He said, sliding the card across the table. The man stopped it with his hand right before it slid off the edge.

"Alright, now the _real _card, general."

Whoever the leak was, he was good. He had told the rebels about the decoy card for just such an occasion. If the card was inserted, it would have triggered a security mechanism that would lock all the doors and set off an alarm, sealing the fate of whomever had tried using it.

Rex gave him another icy look, before reluctantly reaching underneath his shirt and pulling out a thin necklace - at the end of which was a keycard.

"That's the one." The man said with a smile. Rex angrily ripped it off the chain and slid it over to him.

"Now!" The man shouted loudly, and just as quick as he did, all the lights on the lower section of the club went out - plummeting it into darkness. Screams of confusion flooded the large room as the people (who hadn't even noticed what was going on at the table above them.) began panicking.

Rexs face was as cold as ever.

"You won't live to tell this grandeur tale to anyone, you do realize that?"

The man had already stood up from the table, and was backing up towards the stairs - keeping the dual machine guns locked on the four soldiers. He paused at the top of them.

"For my father." His voice was steady and full of pride as he raised one of the guns to the weak-looking chandelier that hung above the table. Rex was only able to get out a half of a shout, before the sound of bullets drowned it out - cutting through the supporting chains of the magnificent light. They snapped, and it shot straight down into the middle of the table, exploding in a brilliant display of light before going dark and sending the club into complete blackness.

It was probably better for the three men at the table who weren't generals. You didn't want to see Rex's face.

---

-

---

Teioh slammed the double doors of the club shut behind him, spilling out into the moon-lit streets of Thaisan and dropping the two machine guns.

"Marlene!" He called out, pressing all his weight against the doors.

A moment later, Marlene (still dressed as a waitress) appeared from around the side of the building, driving a small car. She parked it in his place, as Teioh took a few steps back from the entrance.

"That should hold them for awhile." She said, scooting to the passenger side and getting out of the vehicle.

"Yea." He agreed. "And the back door?"

"Sealed, but it won't hold for long."

"Alright then, bring the trucks to the front of the Inn, I'll head to the detention center underneath." He said, holding his arms up and twirling the keycard between his fingers. Marlene nodded.

"Teioh!" She called out as he raced towards the Inn. He looked back at her. "Be careful!"

"You too." He shouted back, then continued towards the Inn.

The inside was no different from any other Inn. Warm and cozy. Made you feel like it could easily be a second home. Long wooden walls, and comfy looking lobby furniture. A perfect disguise for Shinras secret prison.

Teioh pulled open a door behind the front desk, leading to a small, dark storage closet. He took two steps into the mothball-smelling cube, before crouching down and peeling back a carpet that was there. A trap door was exposed - looking like a kid who got caught cheating on a math test.

"Well I'll be damned." Teioh said, shaking his head. So far, their source had been spot on. The four guards and the retirement party. The fake keycard. And now, the trap door beneath the carpet.

_We should be paying him more._ Teioh thought to himself as he grabbed a hold of the indented grip of the door. He stood up quickly, bringing the trap door up with him, and swung it backwards. It landed with a soft thud on the wall behind it. A short descent down a ladder, and he was in a long, bright hallway - at the end of which was a steel, menacing-looking door. He started down the hallway, suddenly feeling like he had entered another world. When he reached the steel rectangle, he slid the stolen keycard through a machine to the doors left. A short beeping noise and a hiss of the doors locks being released later, and he was stranding in the prison.

"Teioh!"

He was met with a handful of cheers from the prisoners that were locked behind the four cells (One in each corner of the room). He looked around. This was Shinras dirty work down here. Rebels that had been locked up for petty crimes, or no crimes at all. Politicians that had opposed them. Men who had worked for them, and wanted out. Though he was happy to be setting them all free, he didn't see the man he was looking for.

"Teioh!" A voice called to him. He looked over and saw a short, dark-skinned kid in raggedy clothing.

"Loeb." He answered, jogging to the door of the cell the kid was in.

"Glad to see ya, buddy! Get me outta here!" He said, shouting with excitement and yanking at the long steel bars of the cell.

"Loeb." Teioh started, as he slid the card through the door. "Where's me dad?"

Loeb looked at him. The excitement had been replaced by a concerned frown.

"Loeb! Don't cut corners, man! Were is he!?"

"He's here… he don't look good though. They beat the hell out him man."

By now, the door was open.

"Here." Teioh said, handing Loeb the keycard. "Free the rest of them, then head upstairs. Marlene is waiting with three trucks. I want you behind one of their wheels."

Loeb nodded as he took the card.

"Hey Teioh, man." He said, standing to the side as people began flooding out of the cell doors. "He never cried out in pain, man. Not once."

Teioh forced a smile and shook his head.

"Be quick."

Loeb nodded, and he was on his way.

After the cell had been emptied, Teioh saw him.

Most people knew him as Joe. Or Jockey Joe. Or maybe, just as Teiohs rider. But all Teioh knew him as was

"Dad!" He shouted out as he ran to the man slumped into the corner of the room. He slid to a kneeling position beside him. The man was old, and Loeb hadn't lied - he didn't look good. His eyes were small circles in dark shells, his face long and tired, and a bit pale. The only thing that had maintained its health, was the "lucky" black cowboy hat the man had worn in every chocobo race he had ever entered. His dad had always claimed it was the source of all his fortunes.

His father looked up at him with worn eyes. His mouth fell open for a moment as he stared at Teioh - seemingly trying to figure out who it was that knelt over him.

"Son?" His voice was a grainy whisper that echoed distantly in the, now empty, room.

"Yea dad." He answered suddenly finding himself fighting back tears. His father stared at him for a moment - then said

"Did you bring Teioh?"

He must have been bad, because now he was delirious. The black bird he asked for, that had carried him on strong legs to countless victories, had passed on years ago.

"No dad… it's just me."

He hated being named after the chocobo. It was demeaning, not to mention embarrassing - especially growing up, where he was teased into tears at school, being called "Chocobo Boy", or "Slow Teioh". But they were kids, that's not what really bothered him. What really bothered him was the fact that he had always felt he was in the stupid birds shadow. He remembered thinking _If only I was as fast as daddies Teioh. Then daddy would love me just as much. _ He remembered the time his father let him ride along in a race. He had never gone so fast before. The black chocobo carried them relentlessly through the course he had grown to know so very well. His young eyes burned as the wind they cut through jabbed at them like a knife. It was an exhilarating experience for such a young child to participate in. Unfortunately it was the last time he ever got to do so. His father, for the first time in years, had lost a race.

Teioh remembered feeling the worse he ever felt afterwards. He remembered the disappointed look on his fathers face. He remembered the black chocobo of the same name, staring a hole through him later that night at home. He remembered the spiky-haired blonde man who had beaten them (who he would later learn to be the hero, Cloud).

But most of all, he remembered wanting to make up for it to his dad. Which led him here, in the basement of a secret prison - freeing rebels and hunching over his old man.

"Come on dad, we're getting out of here." He said, wrapping his arm around his fathers back.

"No son." His father suddenly said, more strength in his voice as he did so. Teioh looked down at him confused.

"Dad, I-

"Son." His father cut him off, staring into his sons eyes. "I've been in this race for a long time kid… and I think I can just about see the finish line."

"Dad…"

"But," His father continued. "This race can't be won by no mortal man. No. This is a race we're all born to lose."

"Dad! Stop!"

His father wrapped his old hand around the back of his sons neck and pulled him close. Teioh expected him to kiss him, but he did something else instead. He pulled the old black hat, that had seemed to be a permanent part of his head, off and gently lowered it onto Teioh's. He gave a tug to the front flap - securing it in place - and smiled.

"You've got the luck now kid." His father whispered and gave him a wink.

Teioh stared down at him with teary eyes.

"I love ya… Teioh."

And with those words, the race was finally over.

---

-

---

Loeb stood on top of a truck in the street of Thaisan - guiding the, now free, rebels to the back sides of them.

"Move, move, move!!!" He shouted, pointing towards the rear ends of the large vehicles. "Split up evenly!"

Marlene was standing back there, motioning with her hands to which trucks they should go to.

"Where's Teioh!?" She shouted at Loeb over the commotion. Loeb looked down at her.

"If my guess is right… he's probably saying goodbye to someone."

Marlene bit her lip and nodded. She knew they had captured Teiohs father, and she hadn't seen him come up either.

"OK, listen to me Loeb." She shouted at him. "Drive the middle truck - lead the others. Go to the outskirts of Midgar on the east side, we have a hideout in the slums that is reachable from there. We have a contact waiting near the path, he'll know where to go from there."

Loeb nodded.

"What about you and Teioh?"

"Don't worry about it, just go!"

As the last of the people had filed into the backs of the trucks, and two drivers took the other two wheels - the convoy took off into the night, leaving nothing behind but a trail of dust. And Marlene, who wasted no time dashing into the Inn.

She found the secret ladder, and was down in the holding room in seconds.

She raced in to see Teioh hunched over his fathers limp body, cradling it in his arms. Her eyebrows sloped inwards as she pressed her lips tightly together.

"Oh, Teioh." She said, rushing to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I'm so sorry."

"No, it's uh… it's ok." He said, rubbing her hand with his. "I, uh… just wanted to say goodbye, you know?"

She nodded.

Teioh gently laid his fathers body on the floor and stood up.

"Have they gotten out?" He asked. His voice was low.

Marlene nodded again. She didn't want to speak - it would have felt… disrespectful.

"OK… let's go get Montana and join them."

With that, they both turned and left the room - but not before Teioh turned around and gave his father one final tip of his old black hat.

---

-

---

Montana cut thru the cold night air like a bullet. Even with the extra weight of her two passengers, she was lightning quick. A golden chocobo - and the last of her kind. Teioh always referred to her as "The only good thing I got from that stupid, black bird.". And right now, the black birds only child was saving his life.

Teiohs shoulders reached for his ears as bullets ripped past them - Teioh holding the chocobo's reins from the back, Marlene between his arms in front of him. Just when it looked like they were going to escape the town - Rex and his men burst through the back door of the Calber Fastella nightclub which they had been locked into. It didn't take them long to spot the fleeing party and get into their hovercars and onto their motorcycles. They had also called in a couple of reinforcements - and now, they had a whole fleet of soldiers on their heels, sending a storm of bullets at their backside.

"Hya!" Teioh let out a thunderous cry and gave Montana a swift kick. Automatically, she kicked it up a notch. Marlene was amazed at how fast the bird really was. She had heard rumors of the golden chocobo's speed, but had never seen it up close.

Suddenly, her eyes caught a dreadful sight ahead.

"Teioh! Look!" She screamed, the fierce wind making it a whisper.

"I see it." He answered.

Ahead of them, the gate to the city was closing.

"Hya!" He repeated, if possible, even more powerfully. The golden bird pushed itself to its limits - leaning forward so far, Marlene thought she was going slide off. She felt one of Teioh's arms wrap around her waist, as if reading her thoughts. The gate (which was now only feet ahead of them) was closing too fast, they weren't going to get through.

"Teioh!" Marlene screamed. "We can't make it!"

Just as she said the words, Montana - with one last burst of strength - threaded them through the slim opening that was left. The sound of the metal gates slamming into each other was so close to the back of their heads, they felt it.

The army behind them wasn't so lucky. The two bikers that were leading the pack (unable to brake) slammed into it with a ferocious thud. The three hovercars behind them also slammed into it, but instead of coming to a dead stop, they simply barreled their way though - leaving the gate a mangled mess on the road behind them.

Teioh looked back and saw them coming. He suddenly turned back and jerked Montana's reins to the right. Marlene looked back at him with a confused face.

"We can't outrun em'… at least not on land." He yelled.

---

Rex sat in the passengers side of the middle hovercar, still grimacing over the fact he had to mangle his own cities gates. His eyes narrowed onto the small golden figure two hundred feet ahead of them.

"The chocobo can't run forever." He said calmly. "They will stop, or they will lead us straight to their base. It is a win-win situation. The rebel dogs, _will_ pay."

Ahead, the party made a hard right turn.

"Sir?" The driver asked confused.

"Follow them!" Rex barked at him. He squinted his eyes. _Where are you going?_

_---_

Marlene's eyes went wide when she realized where he was going.

"Teioh! Are you nuts!?"

"Trust me…" He said assuredly.

Less than a hundred yards away was the massive, dark blue carpet of the ocean - softly lit by the large moon that hung low to it.

"Hya!" Teioh called out. He had no intention of veering off course now.

Marlene grabbed his arm with hers and closed her eyes tightly. This was the end of them.

But when she opened them again, they weren't dead. No, they were very much alive, and running full speed on top of the water. Marlene's mouth dropped slightly open, and her eyes went into a dreamy stare, as the ocean floor whizzed by beneath her.

"Teioh!" She cried out in half fear, half amazement.

Teioh smiled - and inside of himself, he buried the hatchet with his old black-feathered nemesis. _Thanks… Teioh._

_---_

"STOP!" Rex screamed, but it was too late. The hovercar came to a slow halt, unfortunately - it was over the water. The jets below the vehicle gave in to the cold oceans floor, dieing instantly and reducing the car to a useless floating hunk of metal. The other cars behind him tried stopping as well, but also shot into the water - bumping Rex's car out even further.

The only thing he would catch now was their long shadows, which mockingly stretched back to him from the moon ahead. His face was stone-cold - his eyes murderous. Twenty minutes ago, he would have told you there wasn't a thing in the world to make him reconsider his retirement.

He would have been wrong.

---

-

---

As Montana carried them seamlessly over the ocean surface, Teioh reflected on what had just happened. All the bullets that whizzed inches from his head, the narrow passage through the gates, and the ocean escape. And for a moment, if only a moment, his mind thought of his fathers old, black, lucky cowboy hat - which now rested firmly on his own head.

---


	6. A Revealed Plan

There were lots of things Cloud wasn't sure of. He wasn't sure he still had the physical abilities he needed of the days that had long gone by. He wasn't sure who he could trust in this new, confusing world he had come back into after twenty years of seclusion. He didn't know why the pipe-swinger had attacked him, or why the man told him that Shinra had taken Tifa back to their hometown of Nibelheim. There was a vast ocean of uncertainties swirling about in Cloud's head. The only thing he _was _certain of, was that he needed answers - and he knew just where to look.

_Keep calm, old man. _He thought to himself as he tried his best to keep a casual style to his walk - which was leading him straight thru the front doors of the (rebuilt) Shinra headquarters. He would have to play it cool if he was going to make it all the way to the top floor, which President Rufus had undoubtedly made his personal quarters. President Rufus. The man with (Cloud hoped) all the answers he needed.

Playing it cool meant no weapons - which bothered Cloud more than any confused thought he could have dreamt of. The only thing he had come to trust, the only thing he had come to depend on in his old age- was laying lifeless in a large bush, hundreds of feet away from his yearning hands. He loved that sword… probably the only thing he did love anymore. He certainly didn't care much for himself.

_What are you doing, old man? Keep your head in the mission. You need it more than ever with no weapon._

A Shinra soldier passed him as he entered through the large, glass, double front doors. He couldn't refrain from balling his hands into fist as the soldier passed. Old habits would find you, no matter how long you've been hibernating. The soldier didn't even so much as look at him as he went on his way. _Good. _Cloud though. _At least they aren't looking for me. At least not here._ He had figured once word got back to the higher-ups that were pulling the pipe-swingers strings that he had leaked info about Nibelheim, they would lower their guard here in Midgar. He must have been right, because security in the large lobby he had just walked into was scarce. Maybe they didn't think the rebels were such a threat after all. Or maybe, it was a clever way of lulling any rebel-minded attackers into a false sense of security - dozens of soldiers pouring out of every crevice in the building the minute something went wrong. Either way, it didn't matter. Cloud didn't plan on calling any attention to himself.

"Hi. Welcome to the Shinra office, how can I help you today, sir?" The blonde woman at the large oval of a front desk asked. She used a cheery, yet empty, voice that could have only been perfected from years at a meaningless desk job. It meant she was experienced at this. It meant Cloud had to be extra careful not to seem… Cloud-like.

"Hi." He said, forcing a wide grin that hurt his face. He hadn't smiled like that since… "I'm here to see Rufus."

The lady shot him a sharp look from behind her thick glasses.

"_President_ Rufus?" She said, correcting him. "Do you have an appointment, sir?" She asked, but the confused look on her face said she already knew he didn't.

"No." Cloud confirmed. "But I'm sure he'll see me on short-term scheduling. We're old friends."

The lady raised an eyebrow and looked as if she wanted to say "_Your _friends with the President?". Instead she said

"Sir, I don't think that's possible. Maybe if you schedule now and come back-

"Cloud. Just tell him Cloud is here."

The ladies face showed her annoyance rising. Cloud caught her eyes take a glance over at the two guards that were at either side of the front doors.

"Please. If he wants to have me thrown out, that's fine - but at least give him the name."

Her gaze shifted to him, staring into his eyes. Those faded blue eyes… they were hypnotizing and relentless. She pursed her lips and frowned her brow in debate for a moment before saying

"OK. Go wait over there," She pointed to a row of chairs to the right of the front doors. "And I'll tell him that…"

"Cloud."

"That Cloud is here."

He smiled and gave her a nod before going to the chairs to wait.

He looked as casual as could be, but inside he was in a heightened mode of awareness. His eyes digging around the room for anything out of place. If the soldiers were alerted to anything from above, he would know the second they did. What he would do from there, unarmed, he didn't know. _Improvise, I guess. _

The lady had made the call now. She glanced over at him a few times while she was on the phone, but they weren't nervous glances. Not the kind of glances you gave to a former warrior, one who had gone toe-to-toe with Shinra in their early days. No, these were casual, look at who I'm talking about, glances. It made him a little more relaxed, but not overly so. He was careful of that. He learned that lesson at the city of the Ancients. Always be on guard… never let your surroundings take your eyes away from you. _Aeris…_

"Sir." The woman cut into his thought. He pulled himself out of the chair and made his way back to the front desk. When he got there, he saw a face of almost embarrassment.

"The President will see you now." Her voice was small - shameful. "I apologize for my rudeness."

"Don't worry about it."

"Thank you. The elevator will take you there." She said, gesturing to a large elevator to his right. He nodded with a smile. All this pretending was making him sick. He hated acting like someone he wasn't. Almost as if he was being controlled - like a…

He forced the thought out of his head before it could be finished. It wasn't the time to go down that road. Not now. The elevator door slid open with a _bing_. Behind it were two Shinra soldiers. For a second, he thought he was being set-up. He thought his old mind had deceived him - that there was something he hadn't picked up on in the lobby. He thought of his sword - lying dumbly in a bush outside.

"Come on." A soldier said. "President Rufus is waiting."

Cloud, like a seasoned veteran of putting his thoughts aside, smiled and stepped into the small elevator - turning around to face the closing doors. As the booth began its ascent, Cloud's eyes found a small golden plaque above the doorway. It said something, but Cloud didn't know what. He hadn't read it. Instead his eyes stared past the words - at the reflective golden surface of the plaque beneath. If the soldiers were to try something, or even if they gave a shady glance at one-another - Cloud would know. And as the elevator reached the top floor and came to a stop with another _bing_ - he was convinced the soldiers had not been notified in anyway who he was. At least not yet.

"This my stop?" He asked casually.

"Yep." One of the soldiers answered equally.

The elevators doors slid open to reveal a wide, elegant hallway. One that would have been much more fit for a ballroom, or a theater. Long red walls, that seemed to head upwards for an eternity, were lavishly decorated. The carpet (which rolled towards the elevator door like the tongue of some mysterious creature) was just as over-the-top. Bright lights lit the way from regular intervals along the walls.

Cloud shook his head. _Tax payers money well spent._

He suddenly frowned. What did he just think? It was as if Marlene's words had jumped into his head. She had said that exact sentence to him when they were heading towards Midgar together. He remembered she had spotted a large cruise ship, out on the ocean. She told him a story of how Shinra gave it's new soldiers a luxurious, paid vacation if they stayed loyal to them for at least a year. That's when she said; _Tax payers money well spent._ But why had Cloud thought it? He didn't care where their money was going - after all, he wasn't a tax payer himself. _Just Marlene's words, ringing through my head. Damn, that girl was chatty. _

He began walking down the long hallway - the two guards from the elevator staying at his backside. Just as he approached the large front doors to (what he thought was) Rufus's office, they swung open.

"Cloud." Rufus said - surprise and joy in his voice. More surprise. He gestured to the two soldiers behind him, and - after a short, reluctant pause - he heard them turn around and go back to the elevator.

"You know." Rufus began, as he turned around and headed into the room behind him. Cloud followed. "I must say, I'm surprised, Cloud. Although I shouldn't be, I guess. It's a brave decision to come here, but you always were brave - weren't you?"

Cloud brushed aside the "compliment".

"I should have been heading towards Nibelheim by now, right?"

Rufus spun around with a devilish grin on his face. He hadn't seemed to age a bit. His hair was still blonde and plentiful - his boyish, good looks still perfectly intact. Cloud was angered by this, but not from jealousy. He was angry that this scum had somehow beaten his age - still looking like the young, power-hungry vice president from years ago.

"Cloud… let's sit down. Be more civilized." He said. Even his voice had remained young.

Rufus led them to two, red, leather couches in the center of the oval-shaped room - which was as ridiculously fancy as the hallway leading to it. Rufus sat on one, Cloud taking a seat on the opposite side. Only a glass table separated them.

"I must say, Cloud… you look terrible." Rufus calmly stated, sliding into the back of his couch comfortably and propping his feet on the glass table in front of him.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing."

Rufus gave one of his innocent smiles.

"It's the Mako, you know." He said, still with the smile on his face. "It messes with your aging process. All the people we experimented on have shown the same effects. Their face looks twenty years older than they actually are. Physically, they feel even worse. After the vanity issues take a hold of them, that's when the real problems begin. The problems that aren't on the outside."

Cloud stared at him coldly.

"The mind begins to bend and contort around invisible edges. The brain begins sending strange signals to the body - causing unexpected, and uncontrollable muscle twitches." Rufus continued. His grin had disappeared, but the mocking tone had not. "Have you had any twitches yet, Cloud? That's when you know your mind don't work very good no more. You know, none of the other soldiers have made it much past their forties. How old are you now?"

"Old." Cloud answered calmly.

"Yes… old indeed." Rufus agreed as he shook his head slowly. He was surprised Cloud hadn't given much of a reaction to the news. In fact - he hadn't reacted at all. Maybe the effects had already gotten to his head… No. He's gotten this far - he's still in one piece.

"So why am I here, Rufus?" Cloud asked, ignoring the presidents dreadful vision of the future.

"I thought that was _my_ question?"

"No. It isn't." Cloud began. "You want something with me, and I want to know what it is. You obviously don't want me dead - seeing as you didn't spring a trap on me in the slums, where you knew I was going to be. You don't want me captured, because you could have gotten me in the slums for that, too. So what the hell is it you want, Rufus?"

Rufus nodded.

"Alright Cloud." He started. "I can see the Mako effect hasn't affected your mind. At least not yet. But, I guess that's a good thing…"

"Don't play games, Rufus. You said it yourself, my inner clock is ticking - time is valuable to me now."

"Indeed it is." Rufus agreed. "OK Cloud, I'll be honest with you. I need your help."

Cloud gave him a confused look.

"Yes. I'm asking for your help. Don't look so shocked, even a President needs help from time to time. "

He stood up, and began pacing around the room slowly. Cloud didn't take his eyes off of him.

"Let me ask you, have you ever heard of the _Sephiroth Cult_?"

Cloud grimaced. Even hearing the name made him hurt. Most of his memories had been either buried, or forgotten - yet hearing the name could somehow bring them all rushing back - Sephiroth. Memories had a way of finding you again.

Cloud shook his head.

"Oh, yes… of course not." Rufus said, shaking his head. "You wouldn't have, as you've been in hiding for the last two decades. Well, they formed just around after the time Meteor hit. No one is really sure exactly when, or _who_ began it - but we do know it was around then. A small group of people who had learned of the story of Sephiroth… misinformed a hundred times, probably. They believed that Sephiroth was a god, sent to us from the Cetra, or Ancients - as you might know them. They thought that we killed a god, and would be punished accordingly. That the Cetra would return to find their prince dead, and unleash a wrath upon our planet like none imaginable to a humans mind." Rufus was now standing at a large window behind a desk - staring down at the city below. "At first, it was just a spook story. One to tell your buddies around the campfire. But as time grew, so did their numbers. And their crazy beliefs. Even to this day, they would die in his name - smiling.

"They preached their craziness all across the planet. At night, when the towns and cities are completely still and quiet, the church would re-open. Or the old abandoned inn at the far side of town would suddenly be alive with chatter. The Sephiroth Cult was in town - and if you weren't too afraid, you'd go and see if the rumors about them were actually true. And if you were a fool - you'd join them."

Cloud shook his head in disgust. Sephiroth. He had found a way to out-live his physical body, once again.

"Their threat, like their numbers, had started out as minimal. Once in awhile you would find a dead chocobo in a field - badly beaten and cut up sadistically. Or you'd catch a caravan of dark riders, riding swiftly across the planet in the middle of the night. But as their followers increased - their tactics became more sadistic."

Rufus turned to Cloud and looked him straight in the eye.

"Human sacrifices... Not just men, Cloud. Women… and children."

Cloud narrowed his eyes, a new sense of anger rushed through his body, making everything inside of him feel alive.

"Now, I am worried their numbers may have grown a bit too large for my likings."

"So go after them." Cloud said, fighting to keep the emotion from his voice. "Kill them all with your stupid army."

"I would love nothing more, but with this cold war going on with the rebels, my hands are tied. If the rebels found out a large portion of our army was indisposed, they would strike us with everything they had."

"And you want _me_ alone to get rid of them?" Cloud asked sarcastically, pointing to himself.

"Well… yes."

"Are you sure _your_ mind isn't the one that's failing?"

"Positive. You see, three days ago I struck a deal with them that will guarantee they stay out of my business… at least for a little while. You see, they are avid collectors of anything that came in close contact with Sephiroth. Yes… they do quiet enjoy their collection up in the dark places of Mt.Nibel."

Rufus waited patiently for Cloud to react.

_Mt. Nibel… Nibelheim… Tifa._

And suddenly, quicker than he thought his aged legs could go, Cloud was on his feet - racing at Rufus furiously. Rufus - premeditating the move - had already called for Bastian (his pet creature that was something between a wolf and a lion). The ferocious beast jumped between Rufus and his attacker - landing with a hard thud and peeling back his upper lip to show a jagged row of long teeth. Cloud slid to a stop in front of him. For a moment, he considered trying to take the monster, but the thought of his sword laying outside made him decide against it.

"Rufus you scum!" His voice was dangerously mad.

"Calm down, Cloud. They said they weren't going to kill her."

"No, just experiment on her and torture her!"

"Well, if that's the case - I suggest you make haste."

Rufus was smart. He had planned this out well. Cloud had no choice but to admit it. It was a win-win situation. If he went after Tifa and killed the cultists, Rufus would have one less threat to worry about. If he went after her and failed, the verdict would be the same. He would have delivered Cloud to them - probably the ultimate prize in their sick, distorted world - making them leave the president and his army alone for good.

"You'll get yours, Rufus. I promise you that." Cloud said coldly, then turned and began heading back to the elevator.

"Don't forget your inner clock is ticking, my friend. Hope ya don't twitch." Rufus called after him, then began laughing hysterically.

Cloud felt a twitch alright. A twitch in his head that reminded him of why he fought these kind of bastards in the first place. They had forgotten the value of life. They were sick and cruel… the weakness of the world. And he made a vow that if he survived this whole thing, he would make sure they would never forget again.

_Tifa… I'm coming._


	7. Something in the Storm

A storm was on the way. A cold wind passed through the air, sweeping up some fallen leaves into a wild dance. The sound of their rustling was very loud in the midst of this quiet night. Even more loud was the mind-piercing crack of the thunder, which was surely to be the prologue to some magnificent storm. The large moon overhead was slowly eclipsed by a dreary purple cloud. The next burst of thunder seemed to be the clouds laughter as it wrapped the planet under its dark blanket. A lightning bolt shot to the ground in a dazzling pattern of zig-zags. An ice cold wind pushed over a trash can. Yes, a storm was certainly on the way.

From a small window inside an equally small shack of a room, Marlene was sitting up watching and waiting for it - listening to the quiet (but constant) patter of the rain on the roof. She sat on the corner of a raggedy mattress that had been laid out on the floor - surrounded by nothing but a small desk that stood two feet higher than the beds surface. The moon was casting a neat rectangle of light through the rooms sole window, but a menacing looking purple cloud had almost completely smothered it. Now Marlene was in the dark, and she didn't mind. She was thinking of when she was a young girl living at Corel. It was so dark at Corel most of the time, she had grown accustom to it's presence. The nights seemed to be longer there. And it was always so dry. She dreamt of the night a mean, old storm would come out to find her. To pour over her bedroom window as she lied still - not daring to move. She imagined it would see her if she did, and come and take her away… far away from Corel to some place where it always rained and the days were three times as long as the nights. It was a fantasy world she had crafted from many sleepless nights - stuck awake by the howling of some insane beast outside, or her fathers (her real fathers) drunken ramblings. _Not much different, actually. _She thought as she pulled her knees in closer to her body. She hugged them tightly and propped her chin between them. Just like when she was younger… before the Shinra took her home away from her.

With that thought, she glanced over at the other side of the mattress where Teioh was sleeping peacefully. Sometimes she would watch him sleep and could only imagine what wild dreams he was having. He sometimes muttered things… strange things. Things that she wasn't sure even _he_ would know what they meant if repeated to him in the morning. He was still as enigmatic as the day she met him. Him and Loeb… two of the strangest Chocobo racers she had ever seen. The two of them were hustlers - and thieves to boot. They did their buisness far out of the reaches of any Shinra influence - which was what had drawn Marlene to contact them about joining her in the first place. Didn't matter who they were, or where they came from now. No one had a secondary title around these parts. If you were a rebel, that's all you were. It was as full time of a job as you could get.

Another flash of lighting lit up the small room.

"Eh… wha… They can't!" Teioh began muttering in his sleep. "No… they're almost there…."

And just as suddenly as he had began, he had stopped and his rambling were replaced by a rhythmic, slow breathing again. It was in the flash of light that she had seen he was still wearing that mysterious black cowboy hat. Ever since they had escaped Thaisan city, he had been attached to it like it was a part of him. In fact, she couldn't recall seeing him with it off since. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was hunched over him and her hand was slowly reaching for it. Another flash of thunder showed his eyes were open.

"Marlene?" He asked in a confused murmur.

She was feeling the same way, not really knowing what she was doing.

"Sorry." She said, feeling a bit embarrassed. "You were having a nightmare again, Teioh. You were muttering something about…" She tried remembering what the words were, but could not. It was so ordinary to hear him saying odd things in his sleep, she didn't even pay attention to what they were anymore.

"I've got a strange feeling, that's for sure." He stated as he rubbed his eyes. "Like… kind of a claustrophobic feeling."

Marlene glanced around the room, although she didn't have to. It was small and dirty - the price you paid at a rebel encampment on the outskirts of a town filled with the empire you're rebelling.

"Yea, I guess-

"No… not the room." Teioh cut her off. He sat up. "Not the room at all."

Another flash of lightning, and Marlene could see he was staring out the window into the rain. His look frightened her - not because it was a scary face, but because it wasn't the usual just-woke-up dreamy gaze. It was a face that was purposeful and looking for something.

"Shinra?" She whispered, not daring to be any more audible as fear grabbed a hold of her. He looked to debate something for a moment, then shook his head. Marlene eased up a bit - but not entirely.

"What then?"

Teioh gave a nod towards the window. Marlene turned around and strained her neck to look over the bottom edge of it. At first, nothing but the constant streams of rain racing down the glass. The water made a distorted picture of the very dim light at the center of camp. She pulled herself to her knees and pressed her face closer to the window. Another flash of lightning revealed a picture that made her skin crawl. Out standing in the middle of the camp, a tall figure in a black robe stood - seemingly staring directly at her.

The sudden horribly eerie image made her stumble backwards, landing on her elbows on the mattress. She stared at the window for a moment longer to make sure the thing outside wasn't going to magically burst through the glass like some crazed demon, and then shot a confused and terrified look back at Teioh. He was already standing next to the mattress, going through the opened desks drawers.

"I don't know." He said before she could ask him, throwing her a pair of tough looking gloves.

She picked them up. Looking at them, her mind was able to drift away from the horror picture of the thing outside. It drifted back to the Seventh Heaven, where she spent countless days training with them. It began right after the incident with the grey-haired men. She remembered Tifa telling her that if looked like even though a lot of the evil that was in the world had been defeated, the planet would probably never be a safe place again. "_Not even for a little girl." _She remembered that line perfectly clear. Tifa had always been a king of mother to her, and after that day, she would also be a trainer and a mentor. Marlene then thought of the Shinra scum that had taken her away, which led her right back to the mysterious black-robed thing outside. Was there some sort of a connection?

"Teioh" She said in a sharp voice, causing him to stop suiting up for battle and look down at her. "I think I better go out there."

Teioh looked like he was about to laugh. "Not without me, you're not! I'll signal Loeb and a couple other and we'll-

"No, Teioh." She began. "I want to talk to him… he might have something useful to say."

"OK, then when we capture him, we'll _make_ _him tell us_ anything useful he might have to say anyway."

"Unless he flees when he sees an entire army coming after him…" She stated dryly. Teioh shot her a look.

"Marlene, what exactly do you expect him to know? It's a strange man standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. For all we know, he could be some crazy homeless guy with nothing to lose… which means he would have no problem going after you at first sight."

"If he does, I can defend myself just fine and you know it." She said. Teioh, looking as if he was beginning to tire of this, began to say something, but Marlene continued. "Teioh, I have to. OK? I'm just not so sure I'm convinced that our insider told us everything he knew."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm suspicious - that's all. It also means that if there is a possibility that I can find out anything else about Tifa, I'm going to try."

"But Cloud-

"Cloud is an aging old man whose probably been practically comatose for the last twenty years. Besides, he's abandoned her (_and me) _once, I'm sure he would have no problem doing it again." There was bitterness and resentment in her voice. She swore to herself to bury those feelings, but once in awhile they cropped up. She couldn't help it. After all, Cloud _did_ leave them -he _didn't_ say goodbye - and he _was _an old man. A foolish old man who couldn't be trusted with a task as big as saving a woman _she_ still cared about. She had been thinking of that ever since they split ways at Midgar - watching him walk off into the city like a lost dog who had found its way back to the pound it came from.

She pulled away from her angry stare at nothing, and looked back up at Teioh - who was looking quite defeated.

"If that creep makes the slightest movement-

"Save the hero talk." Marlene said, laughing away some of her anger. "You look funny saying things like that with that cowboy hat on." She saw Teioh's wounded look, and suddenly remembered who he got the hat from. "Sorry." She added quietly.

"Yea, well, I'll be too if something happens to you."

She smiled. Teioh cared about her deeply, and she knew it. Sometimes, she thought, maybe it was cruel of her to hang around him so much. She cared for him too - just not in the same way. He was a good friend, great fighter, and a hell of a chocobo rider (maybe the best left.), but he was just that. She knew it would never be anything more, but also knew he didn't. And now here they were bunked up together and it must have been torturing him. Maybe if her last glimpse of love hadn't ended so… _wrong_, things might have been different… might have been better…

"Thanks Teioh, but I'll be fine." She said, pulling the old pair of rough, leather gloves firmly over her out-stretched fingers. She made an open-close motion with her fists a few times to get them comfortable, then stood up and took another glance out the window. The man was still there, if possible, looking more creepy than before. She shuddered, but quickly put aside her fear and headed towards the door.

"Marlene…" Teioh began. She looked back at him. He smiled warmly before taking the black hat off his head. She couldn't hide the look of surprise on her face as he gently placed it over her reddish-brown hair and tugged the front flap down. She smiled back at him, but with a bit of sympathy. _Nothing more, Teioh, I'm sorry._

She trudged through the, now muddy, ground - heading towards the small fire at the center of camp. They didn't dare make it any larger in fear of being spotted - although the chances were slim, being as they were centered between a very large and battle-scarred rock that was sticking twenty feet out of the ground (Marlene supposed it was birthed from a battle she heard about when she was a kid between Cloud and his friends and a "weapon" of the planet.) and the dark side of Midgar, where only the beggars and the poor might see them - good, because most beggars and poor folk were in the rebellion anyway. They had set the camp up awhile ago, but she had never felt it so isolated until this moment - marching through a thunderstorm to meet a strange, robed man who, for all she knew, could be the devil himself. As she neared him, she began getting a more clearer image, partially thanks to the black hat that was keeping the rain just at bay from her face. It was a _he_ alright. A _he_ that stood at least six feet tall, and was dressed as dark as the shadow that was cast behind him from the camp fire. As his face (which was pretty well hidden by the black hooded robe he wore) became more defined, she saw he was grinning the devils grin. It made her uneasy, and for a moment, she had wished she sent Teioh out to talk with him instead. She ended her stride when she was but only a few feet in front of him. The rain began to die down a bit, almost as if it was stepping back so they could speak.

"Little late for a stroll way out here on the outskirts, isn't it?" She said, slightly raising the volume of her voice to speak over the rain. She kept her eyes locked on his face, but she was really watching his hands. He kept his grin as he spoke.

"You've come in contact with the Neodeity?" His voice was cold and steady. He wore it well.

"What?" Marlene said quickly. _Knee-oh Dee-a-tee? Maybe Teioh was right, this guy may just be off his rocker. _"Listen mister, I don't know what you're talking about, but I _would_ like to ask _you_ a few questions, if you don't mind."

The mans face ran instantly cold - the smile replaced by something between rage and disbelief. Marlene was surprised by the sudden change, reflexively taking a step back.

"We don't appreciate sinners." He began, keeping his anger to a low flame beneath his words. "You will repent, or you will be punished."

_We? What does he-_

And almost as if an answer to her thought came from the sky above. A flash of lightning shot into the earth only a mile or so away, filling her ears with thunder and her surroundings with a brilliant light. A brilliant light that gave her about a second or two to see what the man meant when he said _we._ Circling the camp in strategically placed positions, dozens of figures dressed exactly like the man before her stood watching. She felt her throat go tight, and finally understood Teioh's claustrophobic feeling.

Then, it suddenly registered with her. The strange religious ramblings, the black robes, the tattoo she spotted on the mans wrist, the creepiness of the whole situation. It was the cults work, and it meant trouble no matter that they wanted. Her mind darted through a myriad of thoughts. Did Teioh see them all? Was he going to try something? If these black hooded men attacked the camp, did they have the numbers to repel them? What could they possibly want? And what is this _Kneeoh Deeatee? _

She would have ran through a dozen more questions, but the mans low - yet furious - voice stopped her.

"Repent." He repeated. "Repent, by telling me about the Neodeity."

"Listen, I told you, I don't know-

The backhand came so quickly and furiously, Marlene's only reaction was to stop talking as it crashed into the right side of her face with such force, her left leg had to plant firmly in the mud to stop from falling over and Teioh's hat was flung off her into the darkness of the night. Pain filled the side of her head, and a little blood trickled from her mouth. Before she could react any further, she heard Teioh yelling something at the top of his lungs, and then everything went white. Not because she passed out, but because she was being blinded by two pairs of intensely bright lights - spotlights from helicopters overhead that were now circling around in the black sky. Next, she heard orders being shouted from somewhere on the outskirts of camp, and before she could register the words inside them - she saw dozens of Shinra soldiers collapsing into the camp from squinted eyes. They had been tracked - the cult had found them - and now the Shinra was going to have their way. Things couldn't have gone any worse.

---

-

---

Rex Arinthone had called in the choppers the moment the girl came outside the shack. Him and his men had been following these strange robed men throughout the whole night, and it was finally going to pay off. He found himself second guessing President Rufus when he was told the plan at first- after all, to work with such crazy scum was almost as bad as working with the rebels themselves. But now here he was, and it had all worked out like the President said, and he was only moments from getting his hands on the little punk that ruined his retirement party. He couldn't help constantly opening and closing his fists to keep his cool as he sat hunched behind the tent in the midst of the thunderstorm. His mind had been a train ever since that night at the Falber Castella, running on a constant path towards finding the rebels that had escaped him. He would be damned before he let his final night on duty end in such… failure. Now, he could end it in triumph. The capturing of a whole little army of rebel dogs… and the pup that dared to sit at his retirement table on that dreaded night. Yes, he would make sure that dog would be taught a fine lesson later on. But right now, he had work to do.

"Team One, flank right, Team Two, you're with me - straight up the middle. Keep your weapons on the shacks and tents, anyone comes out, do NOT hesitate to kill. The mission is preferably captures, but we've been given the OK on lethal force if necessary. Stay sharp, and keep your trigger fingers loose - we don't want any accidents out there in this rain, got it?"

Both teams (of about twenty five soldiers each) nodded, and just as Rex heard the helicopters coming in he gave the GO signal, sending the plan into action. They were quick and, even in the thunderstorm, moved with deadly military precision. Their fast steps were like a fine dance as they began to completely cover every door to every shack and tent that was set up. Rex moved surprisingly well for a man in his fifties, heading straight towards Marlene. She looked like she was in shock, and for good reason being as she was just cracked in the face and swarmed by lights and soldiers. Suddenly the girls face rung a bell in Rex's head.

_That waitress! _

He was filled with even more excitement as he picked up his pace towards her. This dog was going to pay too. But before he got there, the man in the black robe turned towards his direction and put a hand out in a _stop_ gesture. Rex reluctantly did so. He hated having to even be _near_ these people, let alone take an order from one of them.

"What!?" He barked out angrily. "This is our mission now, you're checks already been cashed."

"No sir." The mans voice was now so polite, you wouldn't have been able to guess he was the man who just furiously backhanded a woman in the face. "Your leader told you I may need a prisoner if I could not get the info I needed." He said, gesturing to Marlene. "I did not, so I will."

Rex was a bit angered by this, but nodded anyway. As long as he would get that cocky kid. "Fine." He said.

"General!? You've resorted to working with cultists now!?" Marlene shouted at him, taking a few steps in his direction.

"Shut your mouth, rebel!" He shouted right back, but her words wrung true. He didn't like these cultists anymore than the rebels did. She took a few more steps to him, causing him to slightly raise his machine gun. "Stand down rebel - or be shot down."

"You piece of-

She started as she cocked her arm back ready to swing at him, but before she could, the robed man grabbed it and pulled it behind her - quickly doing the same to her other arm and tying them together with a black cloth he pulled from his robe.

"General Arinthone, I promise you Shinra will pay for this!" She began furiously. "We have-"

The rest of her sentence was distorted by the black bag the robed man pulled over her head.

"Thank you." Rex said as he nodded in delight. He loved to see a rebel treated like the dog they were.

Two more robed men came from seemingly nowhere and picked her up - carrying her squirming body away.

"Your business here is done then?" Rex asked as he watched the men and the girl disappear into the blackness of the night. The robed man nodded and, speaking no words, turned and headed off in the same direction. "Freaks." Rex muttered under his breath when he thought the man was out of ear shot, then watched the figure fade into the night.

"Sir!" A military-like voice cut into his stare. He hadn't even noticed but the teams had done a fine job of rounding up all the defenseless sleeping rebels. He looked around and saw them being marched towards the large trucks that were now pulling up from the north.

"Yes, captain?" He asked, wondering what could possibly be wrong in this perfect operation.

"Someone is escaping!"

His whole mind exploded in anger. Thoughts of that STINKING rebel kid - that DAMNED smug rebel - escaping him AGAIN made him furious.

"WHO! WHERE!" He barked at the soldier in front of him. The man pointed towards the west side of the camp. Rex furiously snatched the binoculars hanging from the soldiers neck and ripped it off him, breaking the strap. He slammed it over his eyes (pain he would feel when his adrenaline was lower), and squinted into them - searching the horizon. Nothing… nothing…. _there!_

He shifted a knob on the right side of the binoculars and the sighting changed from regular, to infrared, to night vision.

He let out a sigh as his shoulders slumped back to a sane position, and the pain on his forehead became apparent. It wasn't him. It was some black kid on a chocobo.

"Sir? Should I send the helicopters?"

Rex debated for a moment before saying

"No." In a calm voice.

"Sir?" The soldier asked in confusion.

"Let him go. Let him run back to his rebel friends and tell the story of this night. Maybe it will put some fear into the dogs… yes. Maybe, having them think we have allied with the cultists will be enough to send a couple of them back to their homes with their tails between their legs."

"Yes sir. Quiet smart sir."

"Wait." Rex said, before the soldier even moved. "On second thought, send a ground force in some hovercars. Stay close to him for awhile, but lose him - and lose him well. We don't want him thinking we let him get away on purpose now, do we?"

"No sir."

"Then go."

"Yes sir."

Rex began walking towards the prisoner trucks to claim his prize, but he found out he didn't need to. Lying in a pool of mud and dirty water, the rebel that kept him out of retirement was lying still. A group of soldiers stood around him, two more were laying on the ground beside them.

"What happened here?" Rex demanded.

"He wasn't sleeping, sir. Put up a hell of a fight, but we got him down without lethal means."  
"Very good private." He said, walking over to the rebel and staring down at him. It was him, alright. "Very good indeed."

And when the camp was cleared out, and all the prisoners were taken away in trucks - the only thing left was a dwindling campfire and an old black cowboy hat that had been stepped on and left in a muddy pool of water.


	8. At the Bar

"Hey buddy… you gonna be ok?"

Cloud looked up hazily at the man that stood leaned over the top of the bar, staring down at him concernedly. He had good reason. Not four seconds ago, Cloud's right arm (which was holding a small glass of something alcoholic… and strong) had began to shake violently, rattling the bottom of the glass against the top of the bar and spilling whatever beverage was inside all over it.

Cloud pressed his lips tightly together and nodded his head as fast as his arm was shaking. His shoulder began to bob as he did so, and his right knee kicked against the wall of the bars front.

_Just a few more seconds…_ He thought to himself as he grabbed the edge of the bar with his left hand and tried to sturdy at least that side of his body. The bartender stared at him with a confused face.

"Hey… seriously man, what the hell's the matter with ya? You gonna be sick?"

"Sick?" Cloud asked. "Or dead?"

The man frowned at him, and suddenly the shaking came to an abrupt end. A tremor of a shiver ran through his body, and then Cloud was sitting up straight - leaning on his elbows, perched over his glass.

"How bout a fill?" He asked, lacing his fingers together. The bartender game him a "Are you serious?" face, before shaking his head and giving a hearty laugh and smile.

"You're out of your mind, buddy - but you keep showing me the gil, and you can be as crazy as you like." He proclaimed with a wide, toothy grin.

Cloud nodded his head, but showed no emotion on his face. He shoved his hand into his right pocket, and moments later he was slamming a handful of gil onto the table. It wasn't _clean_ gil either. He had pick-pocketed some classy looking fellow on his way to the bar from the Shinra building. It felt good - as good as it did when he had almost met his end at the hands of the pipe-swinger. As good as it felt when he had to walk into the Shinra building without drawing attention to himself. It was the old flashes of the life he used to know that made him feel the best… made him feel alive. There were times he wished he had never given it up, but those momentary lapses were quickly brushed aside with the remembrance of the people. Yea… the people. They would have gotten him killed years ago, and he wouldn't even be alive to be enjoying the poison he was sucking back on right now. So he _did _like it when he stole from that business man. He was just taking back a little from the people that had taken so much from him.

"Damn people…" He muttered.

"What's that bub?" The man behind the bar asked. Cloud looked at him like he hadn't understood the words for a moment, before saying

"One more, Zack!" as he slammed the small, empty glass down. The bartender shook his head.

"The name's Enso, I told you that already. You-" He began, but his eyes shifted down to the gil on the table. When he looked back up he was shaking his head. "Alright man…" He said before grabbing the glass and heading down the bar towards the tap of whatever Cloud was drinking.

"Money… it can turn the most hostile eyes into friendly ones." Cloud said, more to himself that anything. _"Money… shit" _Barret's words rang clearly in his head.

Suddenly, he grabbed the table violently and stiffened his body. _No, it can't be! Not this quickly together! _He held on for a moment longer in anticipation before easing up, but took a few deep breathes before completely relaxing again.

_This is all in your head. _

Back at the Shinra building, Rufus had told him that the people Shinra had experimented on were having similar symptoms to the ones he had. Feeling and looking terrible… he could accept that, but now these muscle contractions were really pissing him off. He remembered Rufus saying something about it - about losing his mind was the next step after the body twitches. But he couldn't be right… at least Cloud couldn't believe that he was. If he gave in to the thought of himself going crazy, or worse - dying, he would surely start to do so. Just like he started twitching the moment he bought into the idea in his mind. So now he was in a constant struggle against his own head, and one way to beat your head was to drown it.

"Thanks." He said, picking up the refilled glass. He gave a little salute to the bartender before slamming the strong-scented liquid inside. It was then he noticed there was a man sitting on the stool next to him, pointing in his direction. Plopping his elbows back onto the table, he propped his chin on his knuckles and slowly tilted his head in the mans direction - but not before handing the empty glass to the bartender and giving him a nod. When his eyes met the mans, the man excitedly spoke up.

"Hey!" He said, wide-eyed and smiling. "You… you're Cloud Strife!"

The man looked like a kid opening a birthday present. Cloud smirked knowing he was going to be taking that present away awfully quick.

"No… I get that all the time though."

The man grinned, took of his hat, and slowly shook his head while scratching his temple.

"No… no, you're him. I've seen pictures… you have to be him!"

"Do you know anything about him?"

"Sure… he was a hero."

"Do you know how old he was?"

"Ummm…"

"A few more seconds and you'll realize the man you're speaking with is much to old to be your _hero_."

And in a couple of moments, there it was - the face of a kid who just got his present taken right from under his nose.

"Oh… yea… I guess you're right."

"Yea, sorry. I actually heard he died a long time ago."

"Wow… that would be a shame. We could really use a guy like that around now with this Shinra crap… and those crazy cultist…. not to mention-

The man kept going on and on about the planets problematic state, but Cloud stopped listening. He was suddenly filled with anger. His heartbeat became a war drum - his skin crawled with heat and itchiness. The man was going on and on and all he wanted him to do was shut the-

Out of nowhere, Cloud moved with a speed you wouldn't have thought possible of an old drunk man like himself. He smashed his right hand into the guys face - sending him crashing to the floor.

"What the HELL man!?" The guy spit out instantly, scrambling back to his feet. Cloud looked dazed, probably more-so than the man he just cracked in the face.

"I uh…" He began disoriented - couldn't find any words. The man just stood there, beat-red face, waiting. Cloud stared for a moment more before finally saying

"Sorry." It sounded more like a question than an apology. "I've uh… got a problem."

"Yea, I'll say… you're an asshole, that's your problem!" The man said, shaking his head and then wandering angrily back to whatever table he came from.

"I've got a problem." Cloud repeated in a low voice, no one but himself could hear. He looked down at the mans hat, which he left on the bar top, then looked at the man himself, debating whether to bring it to him and apologize more thoroughly or not.

Cloud used this moment to take a look around the slums bar. How many people were in here that just saw him deck a civilian? Any Shinra? No… they wouldn't be caught dead in a hole like this. A small, dark box of a room that was barely being held together by four raggedy wooden walls (which, Cloud thought, were kept together more by the wills of the slum-scum that frequented it than the actual architecture). A disgusting bar with a smell to match. Yea, the smell, that was the thing about Midgar, Cloud came to realize. It was a city divided between rich and poor - Shinra and rebels - but no matter where you went, that god damned smell seemed to follow. It was the subtle wiring in this intricate machine that had to maintain some sort of peace and order, or else the whole thing would just implode on itself - taking every rat bastard in it with it. And here he was, possibly sitting in the heart of the machine - the bars that kept the poor happy and stupid and the rich smug and pretentious. After all, they sat in kingdoms compared to the little shack he was in right now. How stupid and weak those poor fools are. The real winner was the Shinra though, of course - quietly reaping benefits from all sides of the spectrum .

And here Cloud sat, in the inner workings of the machine, and all he wanted to do was hurt it a little - just to see it squirm, just to see if maybe he could slow it down. He looked at the shadowy, vague faces of the dozen or so people in the bar. Maybe it was his old head playing tricks on him, but they all seemed to be staring directly at him like a pack of vultures waiting to descend on their kill. He had bad news for them if that was the case. _I don't plan on dying. Not here- - not now. Not at least until I can save Tifa. Yea, Tifa. If I can do this one thing before… before the end. If I can finish this task… maybe I can die peacefully. But until then, all you vultures just-_

"Fly away." Cloud said out loud.

That's when he saw it. A big fat vulture perched in a shadowy corner of the bar. It was a pitch black silhouette, set against a small window behind it which let in a bit of moonlight - but not much, being as a thunderstorm was having its way outside, shadowing the light for the most part.

All the people in the bar watching him may have been a mental trick he played on himself, but this… _thing_ in the corner of the room had definitely locked its sights onto the old man with a mean right backhand at the bar. Cloud squinted his eyes to get a better look and hoped for a lightning flash outside to help him, but no such light came. He had another idea.

"Hey." He called to the man he had clocked in the face moments before. The man looked up from his dimly lit table with a bit of fear in his face. Was this crazy old man going to start something more? "You forgot you're hat." Cloud said casually, then picked the hat up from the bar top and carefully flung it in the mans direction. It went too high and knocked into the side of the light that hung over his table - sending the glowing dome rocking back towards the corner of the room, and revealing (only for a split-second) a semi-surprised looking, bulky man with slicked-back, black hair.

"Pipe-swinger…" Cloud muttered to himself and dropped his left hand reflexively to his side where his sword was propped up against the bars wall, wrapped carefully in a sheet, but no so much that he couldn't have it ready in a moments notice. He was sixty feet away, but Cloud would swear he could smell that cheap cologne the guy was wearing when they had first met, and Cloud had left him unconscious - and probably ashamed, being as he had been beaten by, and given information to, a man who looked like he should be as old and weak as the bar they both currently sat in. Cloud opened and closed his fists - the thought of going another round with the man had got his blood pumping, and once again, like clockwork, he began to feel alive instead of like some failing engine trapped in a rusty old frame. He almost wanted to thank the man, but decided he would rather avoid speaking to him again if possible. Anything to avoid that cheap cologne.

That's when he heard the voice. That damn voice. The voice that he had been hearing for the last two months on and off. It called to him - it wanted him. It wanted him to come to it, and it was soothing and it was beautiful and it was everything he wasn't. Calm, steady, sure of itself. A glorious masterpiece of a sound, trapped in the hopeless dark well that was his head.

_Cloud_

It was _her_, it had to be. No other voice could match that beauty, that grace. It was the girl of his dreams. It was the flower girl that he met so many years ago, and in the brief time he knew her, came to fall in love with her. Not the kind of love a husband and a wife share, but the kind of way you love a close family member, or a dear childhood memory. The kind of love that can't be broken over a fight, or a cheating partner. This was the kind of love that lasted forever, pulling at the tiny strings of your heart every moment of every breath. It was confusing to Cloud, but at the same time, he understood it more clearly than he ever understood anything - including himself. And now, for the last two months, it called to him. _She_ called to him. His love. His flower girl. His dream.

Aeris.

When it called, all he wanted to do was run to it - get close to it - feel the warmth that surely radiated from within it.

But he couldn't. It never told him where it was, it just simply called his name in a haunting yet lovely tone, that warmed his whole body. He would sometimes call her name back, but it didn't matter - there was never an answer. He was beginning to think there never would be. One last cruel joke on his pathetic soul - maybe revenge for running away from the world that once trusted him. Maybe for leaving behind everyone and everything that was ever decent enough to give a shit about him. Maybe this… _this_ was the planets way of getting back at him. If that were true, he didn't think any punishment could have been worse. To hear the voice of sanity and reason… only to realize its miles away and you'll never meet the person on the other end. He would have cried over it if he still had enough emotion in him, but he didn't. He cut all his emotions off a long time ago… for better or for worse, right now he wasn't sure. What he _was_ sure of, was right now the voice was calling him - and that's not what he wanted to hear, being as there was a potential assassin sitting in the shadowy corner of this shithole bar - watching him… waiting for him to make a move.

"Go away Aeris… not now."

And almost on command, the voice disappeared as quickly and magically as it had came, leaving nothing but a soft, echoing residue. Cloud slammed the glass of alcohol, then placed it on the bar top before bending down and picking up his (cloth-covered) sword. If he was going to have to spill blood tonight, so be it. He wished to avoid the situation, but if the moment came where it was his life or the pipe-swingers, there would be no hesitation. He half expected the greasy-looking man in the corner of the bar to stand up and meet him halfway as he carved his path through the disorganized tables and chairs that were ever abundant in places like this. Instead, the man simply sat steadily and calmly in his seat, waiting patiently. _A trap?_ No. The last time they met, the guy was alone - Cloud suspected this time would be no different. This scum was a solo act. Half the reason probably being he was a pain in the ass to work with, the other half probably because no one wanted to put up with his stench. The stench, Cloud noticed, only became thicker and more disgusting as he closed the gap.

Only feet away now, his heart picked up pace as the thought of battle became more and more clear in his head. There would be no questioning this time, he had gotten all the answers the man would give in their last run in. His only concern were these civilians. One had been sure of himself that this man _was_ the hero of days passed - which he skillfully avoided. Once the fight began, there would be no doubtful minds in the room. He _was _Cloud, and he wasn't sure how they would react upon discovering that fact. Didn't matter… not now at least. If it came down to it, he would fight them _all_ before surrendering to their interrogations and their pleads. Help wasn't coming - the sooner they learned that, the better off they were.

When he was only four feet or so away from the pipe-swingers makeshift stakeout spot, the door to the bar burst open - letting in the harsh sounds of the raging storm outside. A couple drunks jeered and booed, yelling at whoever had opened the gates to hell to shut them again. Whoever it was, they slammed the doors shut before calling out-

"Cloud!?"

Cloud stopped moving. He didn't turn his head towards the voice, but was certainly listening intently. If he was a dog, his ear would be stiffened backwards in concentration.

"Is Cloud Strife here!?" The voice pleaded.

"Cloud… I _KNEW _it was him! What'd I tell ya! Didn't I tell ya it was him!" Cloud recognized the second voice. The damned guy that, only moments ago, he had _convinced_ that Cloud Strife was dead and gone. "He just walked over there."

Cloud felt a finger pointing in his direction, followed by every pair of eyes in the room landing on the back of his neck, except, of course, the pipe-swinger who still sat calmly in front of him. Cloud wasn't sure, being as it was a dark corner of the room, but he thought he could see the man grinning with amusement over the situation.

"Cloud?" The voice called to him. When it received no answer it continued. "Cloud, please. The rebellion needs your help… Marlene needs your help."

Cloud turned to face the voice that just announced to the entire bar (including the pipe-swinger) that he was tied to the rebellion in some way. The person before him matched the voice well. A kid, no older than eighteen, with raggedy clothes and dark skin stood staring at him with hopeful, yet tired, eyes. He wore a short sword slung low on the left side of his hip. Strapped to his right ankle was a small pistol. A rebel through and through.

Cloud studied him another moment more before strolling over to him, leaving the pipe-swinger be for the time being. He saw the look of surprise and excitement fall over the boys face as he stepped from the shadows into the better-lit portion of the bar. Once again, he could feel every intoxicated eye in the joint land on him with pretty much the same feelings. These were the poor in here - the lowest of the low - and to see a hero… a shimmer of hope in their dark spiral of nothingness, gave every last one of them a warm feeling inside.

_That's too bad. _Cloud thought as the inevitable bar chatter began to fill the entire room. _I'm not here for you… any of you, in fact._

"Lets step outside for a bit kid." Cloud said as he came to a stop in front of the black teenager. The kid nodded, giving a thoughtful glance around the room before turning and pulling the door open.

Before Cloud left, the entire bar had something to say. Most of it was just scattered pleads and questions - but some of it was just plain anger. A few people cursed at him and a smaller number even looked like they were going to throw something. The shock of seeing the hero had quickly worn off, and whatever emotions were left - Cloud didn't want to bother to stick around and deal with. It amazed him that he could be so loved and so hated at the same time. Two faces to every man, he supposed. If they wanted to show their hate side, so be it. All the easier for him to ignore their begging.

"Cloud." The kid began as Cloud pulled the door shut, and they both stood huddled under the short awning of the bar - their only protection from the fierce winds and heavy rains that were all around them. A booming crack of thunder was heard somewhere far off, followed by a thin strip of lightning a few seconds later. "The Shinra… they attacked the camp, sir. Marlene… the robes took her!"

"Calm down. First, what's your name?"

"Loeb, sir."

"Well, don't address me as _sir_, Loeb. Makes me feel even older than I look."

"Yes s-" He cut himself off quickly.

"Secondly, what do you mean the _robes_ took Marlene? Is that some sort of Shinra higher-ups group?"

"No, no. The robes, you know? The… cultists. The Cetra-wannabe's. The-

Loeb continued telling him names of _the robes_, but cultists was all Cloud needed. The moment he heard the word something cold landed in the depths of his stomach, and his entire body tightened. He didn't know why, but for some reason the thought of the cult that worshipped his archenemy made him feel an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.

Fear.

It wasn't the kind of fear that you had when you were a kid - the fear that something was going to come out of your closet at night when all the lights had gone dark, and your mom was miles (rooms) away. No, it was more like the impending feeling of dread… and doom. Like you knew the monster was slowly coming out of the closet, but you were at your friends house and couldn't reach the door in time to shut it. Like a black cloud that was slowly moving in with a warm breeze - a silent assassin waiting to take away the suns shine and leave your day in the rain. If Midgar in fact _did_ have a heart, the cult was the icy-cold hand that was ever so slowly closing around it.

"Cloud?"

Cloud forced his un-focused line of vision back to Loeb from the spot of nothing it faded off into.

"Yea." Was all he could muster.

"Well, what do you think?"

"Well," He began, ignoring the fact he hadn't heard whatever Loeb was talking about. "I think we need to talk."


	9. A Prisoner

There are a few emotions, or perhaps _stages_ is a more fitting word, that you go through when you are imprisoned. The first being anger. That stage had already run its course through Teioh, quite a lot actually. The second was fear, and when it set in it was devastatingly deep and almost impossible to shake until it was ready to move on itself. The fear that you would never see your friends and family again. The fear of torture, or worse - death. The fear of watching years and years slip by your eyes with nothing you can do about it. It was a deep fear indeed, but it was that deep fear that led to the next stage and the stage Teioh was currently in.

In this stage there was only one word that coursed through your head, minute after minute, day after day. It was a word that could drive you insane if you weren't careful with it. It was a word that could fill you with the brightest of hopes… or the darkest of despairs.

Escape. It was either possible, or it was not - simple as that.

Just thinking of it made Teioh jittery. He wanted to get out of here - he _had _to. Marlene, no; the _rebellion_ depended on it. Shinra was working with the cult. It was a devastating blow to their entire cause. If they were allowed to carry out more operations like the one that had brought him to be a prisoner, he was almost positive the rebels would be completely snuffed out in months… maybe weeks. He had to get out of here and warn someone. He had to save Marlene.

He took a look around him, pointless though being as he had performed the same action probably over one hundred times since they had brought him in two days ago. It was a standard Shinra holding cell. He had seen the ugly side of one plenty of times as a teenager to know that. This particular one was no different from those, except perhaps there were no windows in here and it may have been a few feet smaller on every side. He had given up hope on escaping out of it on the first day, but continued to look around every once in awhile hoping that maybe, just maybe, he had overlooked something.

He never did, and there never was anything but three mean-looking walls and a row of metal bars. If he wanted to escape, it would have to be from somewhere else. That's _if _they ever took him out of here, and with the way the last two days had gone, he was beginning to think that was never going to happen.

That is until the late afternoon of the second day, when two Shinra soldiers in classic blue and black uniforms had come trotting down the long hallway outside his cell. He expected them to just keep trotting until he heard the footsteps stop right outside, and two dark shadows fell sharply into his room. He picked up his head and squinted at the silhouettes of the soldiers. They seemed to be waiting for something. If it was for him to beg, or plead with them to let him out, they would be waiting there for two _more_ days. He simply sat quietly watching them. After a few moments (which seemed much longer to Teioh) one of them jammed a key into the cell door and moments later had it slid open.

The smell and taste of freedom seemed to wash over Teioh's entire body, hell his entire soul. It took every bit of his strength to resist the urge to just jolt straight out the door, pushing the guards aside and worrying about where he was going later. It wasn't the time… not yet. They were taking him somewhere, probably interrogations, and he thought to have a better chance trying to get out on the way back - after he had gotten a good look at the _outside_ of this cell and the rooms and halls that followed. The chances were slim, but they were better than the fools chance he had of getting away now.

Instead, he simply sat innocently on his cot. He wanted to look as submissive as possible to these two. He wanted to look like he would _neeeever _ try to escape.

"Up." One of the soldiers suddenly barked out, almost annoyed. He had definitely wanted a begging show, and was now bitter that he hadn't received one. Teioh would play submissive, but his pride would just not allow him to beg like a dog. A rebel dog, as so many Shinra military men would say.

Teioh stood straight up, but made no motion forwards. He simply stood awaiting his next command.

It was the other soldiers, who had remained silent so far, turn to speak.

"Come on." He said, gesturing with his free hand - the other holding an automatic machine gun.

Teioh did so, and when he had stepped outside of his cell (the first time in forty-eight hours) he was immediately grabbed sharply above each elbow by the two guards, and almost instantly he was being led down the hall. _Almost_ instantly. In the short time he was free he got a good look at his surroundings. On the side of the hall they _weren't_ leading him to was a narrow steel door. He assumed it led to where they kept the more dangerous criminals… or perhaps just the ones they didn't want to look at. It actually surprised him he wasn't in there. Between that steel door and himself were about three cells on each side. Now, being led in the opposite direction, he saw that he was just about in the middle of the hall, as there was four cells between his and the door made of steel bars as the other end. He tried his best to glance in the cells as they passed each one, hoping to see a friendly face, or better yet - a rebel. Unfortunately it was hard to make anyone out. All the cells were as dark as his, and the soldiers that were on either side of him blotted most of his vision out anyway.

They reached the door at the end of the hall, and the same guard with the key as before now used a different key to open it. Teioh thought it was pretty primitive that this jail or whatever he was in used old fashioned steel keys. Most locks these days were operated with keycards - and the more fancy ones even had thumbprint scanning.

Perhaps he was in some old prison, hidden deep in some classy town like the one in Thaisan had been. After all he could be anywhere, being as he had passed out after the beating he received at the camp. Yes, the beating… the pain from it was nothing compared to the last image that he had seen and had been burned directly into his brain. Marlene being taken away by the robed men and hopelessly struggling to get free from them. It hurt him - hurt him bad. It hurt him because he was so helpless at the time, and because he was so foolish to let her go out there by herself. If only he had been faster… stronger, none of this would have happened.

But then it dawned on him that it _would_ still have happened no matter what he had done. The Shinra had found them, and there was nothing _anyone_ could have done after that.

He buried his anger, and refocused on studying his surroundings. Now he was being led down a similar, yet more classy-looking, hallway. It was a bright white, and would have been completely so if it had not been for the wooden desk placed directly in the middle of it. A man with reddish-blonde hair and glasses sat behind it writing something down. They approached, then passed it, and moments later he was led through another barred door and into yet another hall. These things were getting better and better looking, as this one was almost passable as a Shinra office's hall.

He expected to be led to the end of it and taken into another, even nicer, one. Instead, they stopped about two thirds of the way through it and opened up a door on the left side. Before he could take a look around the hallway to get one last study of it, he was thrown inside by the two soldiers.

It was like being dropped into a giant glass of milk. The room was so bright, it almost hurt to look at it. There was a ridiculously large light buried in the center of the ceiling that made everything so damn… white. It took Teioh a couple of seconds to adjust his eyes to the blinding room he was in. After he did so, he realized it wasn't _that_ bright, but more that he had been held in darkness for much too long.

He thought he was alone in the giant glass of milk for a moment until the two soldiers from before promptly resumed their holds on his upper arms and dragged him to a white chair situated in the middle of the room behind a white table.

"I'll tell ya fellas," Teioh began as they sat him in the chair. "I like the room, but to me, it's just not white enough, ya know?"

He thought he heard one of the soldiers let out an amused grunt, but it may have only been in his head. What wasn't in his head was the fact that these two were now handcuffing his wrists in front of him. After they did so he tugged at them, testing them a little bit.

Then the two soldiers simply walked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind them, and Teioh was alone again.

He placed his cuffed hands on top of the white table and tapped his fingers on it as he looked around. Not much to look at though. Four white walls, one white ceiling, one white floor and a matching white chair and desk. He let out a deep breath, at the end of which he blew a strand of hair out of his face. He expected he'd be in here for a long time - after all, that was an old Shinra technique. Let the prisoner alone in the empty room for a long time, let him figure out there's no escape and he might as well tell ya everything he knows.

Instead the door, to Teioh's surprise, opened only five minutes or so after it had closed. The person standing in it, however, only made him feel disgusted.

"You've got to be kidding me." He spit out as he stared up into the eyes of a man he once called his friend. A man he once trusted with his life. A man that had introduced him to Marlene and the rebellion in the first place, many years ago.

"How are you old friend?" Denzel asked, closing the door behind him. He was dressed (sickeningly, in Teioh's opinion) in full Shinra uniform, minus the hood.

"Why you." Teioh said, more sympathizing with himself than asking a question.

"Why me? You should be thanking me, Teioh. I had to fight to get in here and talk to you first."

"Oh you had to fight, huh? Who'd ya fight? A couple rebels? Oh, I'm sorry, rebel _dogs_?"

"Teioh, let's not do this."

"You sell-out piece of trash! You expect me to answer YOUR questions!? You must be out of your mind buddy."

"Teioh, listen to me…"

"Oh I'm listening, _old friend_, but the only thing I can think of is jumping over this table and ripping your head off that god-damned uniform! How dare you walk in here wearing that thing in front of me!"

"Teioh, I need information… for Marlene's sake I need information."

Teioh, for once, didn't have an immediate comeback. He simply leaned back in his chair and frowned at the traitor sitting across the table from him.

"What do you mean?" He asked, but their was still anger in his voice.

"I want to help her, Teioh. I need to know where Shinra took her."

"Shinra?" Teioh said. "You don't know about…"

"What, Teioh!? Tell me!"

"Go to hell, traitor." Teioh said casually and slipped back into his seat comfortably. "I ain't telling you squat."

Now it was Denzel's turn to get angry.

"Oh drop the act!" He said, taking a few steps towards the table. "I'm out there every day putting my life on the LINE for you!"

"Oh, you're putting your life on the line? Against _what_, Denzel? A few stray monsters that accidentally wander into the outskirts of the cities? Oooh, big tough man you are, huh? Big tough Shinra soldier!"

"We do much more than that you ignorant ass. Besides, what the hell does the rebellion do for this planet besides complain about Shinra and pull the occasional terrorist stunt. Even if we did do so little, at least we're not hurting people."

"Not hurting people!? Why don't you take a stroll through the Midgar slums some day. Take a look at what your "Presidents" taxes are doing to the people there. They can't even afford to EAT, Denzel! Don't give me that crap - _We're not hurting anyone._"

"Without the money from those taxes, this planet couldn't function on a day to day basis! Every penny of that money goes to the protection and stabilization of the people!"

"The PEOPLE want CHANGE!"

"No, Teioh. That's where you're wrong. _Your_ people want change, and right now - they're in the minority."

"Because Shinra has blinded everyone else, apparently including you, to the fact that they are ROBBING from the very people they swore to protect. They are robbing them and making themselves rich in the process. I thought YOU of all people would be able to figure that out."

Denzel shook his head.

"Look, we could argue this all day, but every minute we do - Marlene's life could be in danger. Now Teioh, _please, _where did the soldiers take her? Regardless of how you feel about me, understand that I still care about _her_."

Teioh looked at him with cold eyes. He didn't want to even talk to him anymore, let alone give him information. But if he was telling the truth, and he really didn't know about the cult… maybe it was possible he could help her.

"The cult took her, alright. And it was _your _Shinra military that handed her right to them."

"Cult?" Denzel said in confusion as his eyes drifted blankly to the back of the room. "You mean the Sephiroth-worshipers? Shinra was working with _them_?"

"Yes." Teioh answered. "You guys are working with them."

"Hey, don't group me in with that! I had no idea…"

"Well now you do, and if you care about Marlene like you say you do, all you have to do is spread the word. Tell the people about this! Let the rebels go after her!"

"No… no, it would cause panic amongst the civilians. I can't just go around announcing that the cult is working with Shinra."

"Then what can you do? No soldier is going to help you go after her. You can't go to the higher-ups, they're all in on it. Redeem yourself and quit this stupid army and help the people of this planet return it to who it belongs." Teioh stated, staring directly into Denzel's eyes. "Return it to the people."

"We've seen what things are like with no government."

"And we can see again if you help us."

Denzel slowly shook his head.

"You'll never understand Teioh. I respect your dedication to what you believe in, but one day you will see. You're wrong."

Teioh's shoulders drooped a little. There was no turning Denzel back. The Shinra had gotten to his mind - had convinced him they were right and just. He could see it in Denzel's eyes. The fire. The fire that every rebel had for their cause, he had the same for his.

"I thank you for telling me what you have told me. It may save her life, just yet." He said, before turning and heading towards the door. As he got there and began pulling it open, he turned back to look at Teioh. "I'll try to get them to go easy on you… old friend."

And with that, Denzel was gone and most of Teioh's hope went with him. He lowered his head in deep thought, but only got a few moments before the door burst open again. He looked up and what he saw completely blackened out any ray of hope or joy that was in him.

"You remember these pretty eyes kid?"

Rex Arinthone stood proud and tall, grinning a grin even wider than his broad shoulders were. He stood there for a moment with that satisfied look on his face, cracking his knuckles, before strolling happily into the room and slamming the door shut behind him.


	10. Another Prisoner

If the planet was compared to the galaxy, and each town was a shining star and each person was a planet whose life revolved around his or her city, Mt.Nibel would surely be a black hole.

That is the conclusion that Marlene had come to in her many dark days in the damp, small, cave-like room she had been imprisoned in. It was so dark most of the time, it was as if light could not reach her - as if it was being drawn into the dark hearts of the evil that made the mountain its home.

The evil, however, was a faceless one to her. The long trip from the rebel camp to this hellhole was a fading memory to her now. Cold days and nights with a bag over your head can do that to you. All she could remember were bits and pieces of the sounds that, although frightening, were somewhat calming. After all, when you're blinded for such a long time, only the memories of your minds eye can keep you sane. Memories and sounds, which is why the occasional grinding of wheels on rock, or the faint hum of an airships engine were calming to her. These creepy men (at least she assumed them to be men) never spoke a word the entire trip. It was unsettling and eerie… quiet and cold. There were particularly quiet times when she began to believe she was dead. The only thing that reminded her she wasn't was the constant pulsing hot air that rhythmically shot out of her mouth, hit the bag that lay only centimeters from it, and bounced back onto her face.

Occasionally (but not frequently) when her breathing became strange, or she began to panic, they pulled the bag up to her nose - but never any farther. They wanted to remain faceless for as long as possible. At first, she couldn't figure out why, but after so long she had drawn a conclusion. It was to weaken her. To weaken her with fear. They wanted to keep her weak and feeble… ripe for whatever they were going to try to do to her, she supposed. Well they had a big surprise coming, because the woman they would be dealing with was not the one they were going to expect. It was going to be a strong, sane woman with the taste of vengeance on her lips.

At least, that's what she told herself when she realized their tactics near the end of the trip to the mountain. Now, she wasn't so sure. Timeless days coalesced together had shaken her up a bit mentally. Not having a sense of what day or time it is can be quiet frightening if the circumstances are right - and judging by the cold, ridged walls and occasional spider or rat that frequented the room she was locked in, she'd say the circumstances were just about perfect.

To her surprise, the smell wasn't actually that bad. In fact, there was really no smell to the room at all, which was - in it's own way - a little creepy also. Every once in awhile she would swear that the distinct scent of medicine had seeped into the eerie vortex of a room - but if that were true, it quickly dissipated as did her hopes of something happening. Something _different _happening that is. She had been thrown in the room for (what she made out to be) roughly five days, and every day was so mind-numbingly similar, it had begun to mentally take effect as well.

The first day, as she counted it, they arrived in Nibelheim. Although still blinded, she knew this was in fact Nibelheim for two reasons. The first being that there had always been rumors circulating around that the cult had made its twisted home in the broken remains of the ghost town - which had once been alive and prosperous, but since the dark days of Sephiroths destuction, it had been left for dead.

Left for dead, and found by dead as far as she was concerned.

The second reason she knew where they were, was the very distinct sound she heard shortly before they reached their destination. When she was younger, and always begged Tifa to tell her stories of her journeys, whenever Tifa would tell her about Nibelheim, she would mention the ghostly howl the wind made when it wound its way though the high peaks of Mt.Nibel. A sound, Tifa said, that could chill even Barrets bones.

So when she heard the sadistic howling of the cold wind, although it terrified her, it also soothed her. She was finally able to put a point on their location. Time was still a conundrum, but at least space was solved. Time and space… two things, Marlene now knew, that we are too ungrateful for knowing.

Shortly after the howls, she heard the terrain change as well. They had definitely entered the town. Still blind as a bat, and having never actually seen the town, she drew it in her mind as they went along. It was beautiful. She saw Tifas house, big and white and perfect, sitting next to a creek. A few houses down was where Cloud grew up. Also big, but not quiet as perfect. Many doors and even more windows - his house was as confusing as he was. In the middle of town was a big large circle where the people would gather and mingle in the day time, and at night Cloud and Tifa would mischievously play. Shops and Inns run by cheerful old men whose guts were just a bit larger than their smile. A dog happily chases a cat around an old oak tree that has as many stories about it as it does circles inside its bark.

Marlene wasn't sure, but she thought she smiled at that point, but she was _positive_ that shortly afterwards, she cried. They weren't going to her dream Nibelheim - they were headed to somewhere closer to a nightmare. Somewhere where only the vaguest of hauntingly chilling stories could escape. Somewhere that could quiet possibly be the last place she _ever_ goes.

Now here she sat in the middle of the "fifth" day, and hope had become a passing train - slowly heading to a point of non-existence on the dreary horizon. She sat with her back propped up against the cold wall, hugging her knees closely to her chest.

Although she had no true since of time, she knew that shortly they would be bringing her daily meal and drink; a pile of assorted slop and a dirty, odd-tasting liquid that a dog in a desert would have turned his snout to. It was humiliating having to eat and drink the horrible meal, but you find out in times of desperation, pride for food is a pretty fair trade.

It wasn't as if she was starving, but getting something in her system helped her keep calm - as much as one can keep calm in such dire circumstances at least.

Shortly later, sure enough she was picking up the rusted fork that came with the lunch tray from hell, and scooping up a big bite of the slop - immediately chasing it down with a slug of the "water". Thinking back to the first day, it seemed almost impossible to get the stuff down. The semi-solid stuff tasted like puréed chalk, and the "water" tasted as if it had ran through a faucet aged with rust and strangled by moss. When you mixed the two together, as she found out on the second day, the horrible tastes almost cancelled each other out. Now, on the fifth day, her taste buds were almost null to the stuff.

She finished the meal in a little under five minutes. Taste or no taste - it was gross, and left you feeling a little odd. But none-the-less, after that feeling past was when she always felt the best. After her mind had let go of the disgusting images of the food, and whatever nutrients were actually in them began to work their course through her body.

This was generally her thinking time - although by this fifth meal, there wasn't much left to think about.

"Fifth meal…" She whispered to herself in a hoarse voice she barely recognized as her own. She frowned her brow and squinted her eyes. _Fifth day… _she thought to herself.

It was then that she realized that she was subconsciously adding her days up here in direct relation to how many meals they had given her. She shook her head and grimaced a bit. One more aspect of her thought that they were trying to control. In reality, she could have possibly been in here for _ten_ days… or more. Or even, if possible, less.

She balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into the dirt-cased ground. She was angry, and the worst part was she didn't even have a face to put the anger on. She could only remember seeing the lower half of the robed-mans face at the rebel camp, and even that was pretty much shadowed and vague. It's not like she could see anyone on the way here. They didn't pull the bag off her head until she was being shoved into the room she was in now, and by the time she had spun around, the door was already being latched shut. When her meals came, a small section of the bottom of the door slid over and the tray of slop was simply shoved in, quickly followed by the closing of the section of door. Therefore her only true enemy was the damn door - systematically spewing out her rotten food tray once every… well, once in awhile.

On the second "day" (after seeing the process the first "day") she waited by the door for what seemed like hours. When she finally heard some sort of noise outside, she bent down to peer out and maybe get a glimpse of what was outside this world she had been locked in to. Instead, she found herself getting a face-full of tray that slammed her strongly straight between the eyes - knocking her back on her ass and making her nose bleed.

She didn't try that again.

She had now finished her fifth meal, and discarded the tray into the corner of the room with the other four, shortly the fifth glass in the group was making their company as well. It was down time for her until the nutrients kicked up in her body. She reachd to the opposite corner of the room to her left and pulled the single piece of furniture that was given to her - a small (but fluffy) pillow. She pulled it close to her, and stopped it just at the right spot as she slowly fell on to her left side - her head gently sinking into the pillow beneath it.

She closed her eyes tight. She didn't want to cry today… for once. It was getting tiresome every "day", and she just wanted a break. A short vacation to "no-cry" island, where tears are banished from the tropical climate and sadness is only as abundant as snow.

Her flight was cancelled as two drops of tears ran down her cheeks forming a pair of clean rivers amidst the dirty land around them. She thought about a saying that Tifa used to tell her.

_The only moments we really know who we are is in our darkest times. If no light can reach us, we must reach it. _

Tifa always had smart little lines like those, seemingly just lying around in her head. Marlene wondered if maybe she learned them all from Cloud… he seemed like a kind of philosopher at times. A philosopher with a big sword and a mean attitude, of course.

Cloud… that was someone she could direct her anger on. It was easy to get mad at him. Maybe too easy at times, she thought.

Amidst her anger-directing, something incredible happened. Something that she thought was not possible in this room. Something _different_ happened.

The old wooden (but sturdy) door that had only been opened one time since she had been thrown inside of it, and only for that reason, cracked. Not cracked like an eggshell over a bowl, but the way your knees crack when you stand up sometimes. The old familiar sound of something that had been stiffened up, and was now shouting its joy to be free to move again. The door… was opening.

---

-

---

Marlene was on her feet in seconds, if not half-seconds. She didn't know whether to get into a fighting stance, or to charge the door, or to possibly even hide. After another moments of consideration, she realized how ridiculous a thought "hiding" was in this large empty room.

Before anymore asinine theories could run through her anticipating mind, the door was open and the person outside was inside the room looking at her.

In that moment everything inside Marlene changed. Not in a noticeable way, but in a subtle sort of way. Her hope train suddenly kicked into reverse, the uneasy feeling in her stomach unwound itself from her abdomen, and the tears that had been sorrowful creeks down a scared girls dirty cheeks had transformed into joy-filled rivers flowing down a smiling girls dirty cheeks. She rushed to the person and wrapped her arms around their waste - pulling herself so close to them, she would have cried out in pain if she wasn't so filled with joy.

Tifa vigorously hugged her back just as tight. Marlene reverted back to the little girl that had lived in Tifas bar all those years ago - small and confused… just a shell of a person in the arms of a great one. Her emotions ran through her like there was a fire, rushing up to her face and rolling out of her eyes. She buried her face in Tifa's shoulder, refusing to loosen her hug as though if she did, Tifa would disappear.

"It's ok." Tifa said. Her voice was like a chorus of angels singing down from the heavens into this hell-like prison, and the moment she said the words, it was as if no matter what happened after, it really was going to be ok.

"What took you so long?" Marlene asked though tears, loosening her hug only enough to pull back and get a look at Tifa's face. It really was her. The big eyes, the warm smile, the flowing brown hair… it was really her. Upon that image, Marlene had to bury her face in Tifa's shoulder again and replace the tight hug.

"It's ok baby, things are going to get better from here on. I promise you." Tifa said in a calm, soothing voice as she ran her fingers through Marlene's hair.

Marlene sniffed up some tear-accompanied sniffles and said

"Can we escape?"

Now it was Tifa who seemed to be doing the tight hugging.

"I'm already free, baby girl."

"What?" Marlene questioned as she raise a fist around Tifa's back and rubbed tears away from her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Let them save you dear. Let them open your mind and free you soul… it's the only way out of here. Trust me."

Suddenly the intimate hug they were sharing ran cold. Marlene's body stiffened in Tifa's arms.

"What?" She said, arching her back so she could look at Tifa's face again. "Tifa, what are you talking about?" She asked, frowning at her in confusion.

It was then that she noticed that she had been wrong before. Maybe it was the extreme joy she found from seeing a familiar face, let alone one that she thought was in danger. Maybe it was the countless hours in the room with no human contact. Maybe it was a mind-altering drug that they had been feeding her through the food. Regardless of the cause, the mistake was the same. This was _not_ the Tifa she knew and loved.

At first glance you would think so, but after studying it for just a moments longer, you'd see the subtle changes. Most noticeably her hair, which was no longer a familiar brown, but a deeply darkened brown - practically black. Her skin was also paler... sickly looking almost. Her eyes, which were always big and beautiful, seemed to be reduced to two beady dark dots - gazing out of hollow shells. And to top it off, her gentle smile was about as warm as Shiva's touch.

"Tifa." Marlene spit out in half shock, half sympathy. "What the hell did they do to you?"

Tifa continued her empty smile, leaning a bit closer to Marlene's face.

"They… _freed_… me."

Marlene was crying again. This time for whole new reasons then her previous ten cries or so. She wasn't crying from fear, or sadness, or joy, or love. She was crying in sympathy… sympathy for what had been done, and what she would have to do.

"I'm so sorry…" She said, her voice weak and barely audible. "I'll come back for you. I promise."

Tifa simply stared at her, seemingly sympathizing the same way Marlene was towards her.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She said as a tear ran down her pale cheek.

Suddenly, almost from out of nowhere, a loud sound began to play. It came from inside the room, it came from outside the room. It seemed to drown every last molecule of air in its ridiculously deafening volume. Marlene shot her hands up towards the sides of her head, trying to shield herself from the thunderous noise. Under their protective shells, her ears could now more clearly identify the sound as a sort of alarm. Strangely though, it was an alarm with a bit of a melody to it as it's pitch dropped and raised in odd patterns.

Tifa collapsed to her knees on the floor in front of her. Marlene bent down and wrapped and arm around her shoulder. Just as she did, the noise stopped.

Marlene shook her head, thinking for a moment that it might help to get rid of the low humming that now made its residence just inside her ears. It didn't.

Tifa was now laying on her side motionless.

"Tifa!" Marlene cried, hunching over her and grabbing both her shoulders to give them a gentle shake. When there was no response, Marlene lowered her head to Tifa's chest. She heard a heartbeat and felt the familiar, slow, up-and-down breathing pattern that comes with the task of being alive. She studied her for a moment longer, coming to the conclusion there was nothing she could do for her right now, and her escape window was probably slowly closing shut.

"I _will_ come back for you." She said once more before standing up and heading towards the door.

Just as she was practically outside of it, and freedom (from the room at least) was on the tip of her tongue, an icy cold hand tightly gripped her ankle.

Somewhere inside of her she expected to turn around and see the old Tifa she had loved like a mother, crawling towards her to tell her she had been relinquished from whatever mind-altering hold that had been put on her. In reality though, she knew that was not the case. She was right.

Tifa, now with a demonic grin and a sadistic twinkle in her eyes, was staring up at her. Marlene her to yank her back into her prison with some new sort of super power, but was met with a different reaction.

As she began to pull away, Tifa sharply thrust her out-stretched leg forward, causing her to go tumbling into the hallway ahead - taking two un-controlled steps before crashing into the rock wall before her. She turned her body to the side and put out her arms at the last moment, but failed to prevent the hard wall from smashing into her. A sharp pain rang through her entire side as she collapsed to the base of the wall.

Slowly pulling herself to a sitting position, she leaned back against the rocky surface and grabbed at her left side - which now was throbbing in pain. It was at that moment she heard the _true_ horror of this place. Blood-curdling screams faintly echoed through the halls from either direction, which (after glancing down both ends of the hall) curved back behind her, forming a sort of half-circle-hallway. A loud machine relentlessly whirred from the right, sounding like an airship engine one take-off away from failing. A quiet whistling was also constantly coursing its way through the air.

The visual matched the audio well. The walls on either side of the six-feet-or-so wide hallway were rigid, cold rock, much like the walls in Marlene's prison. Dim, in-wall lights ran along the hall at regularly spaced intervals, leaving dark gaps in between. The ground was rock as well, but had been covered with an exotic-looking, purple and black carpet. The ceiling hung dangerously low, probably only seven feet from the ground. A cold breeze (which she quickly identified to be the source of the whistling) was persistently flowing through the hall like a stream of water through a jungle - only the water was a frighteningly cold air, and the jungle, a cave-like insane asylum. The chilly breeze stopped at Marlene, wrapping its invisible icy-cold hand around her before continuing down the hall on a constant journey toward nothing.

At least, Marlene _hoped_ nothing. She hoped that the air (like she had previously thought time and light) wasn't being sucked into some twisted vortex of evil at the heart of this beast of a cave.

As Marlene began to regain her composure, Tifa strolled out of the darkness of the room across from her. Her long, pale legs holding up a frame that looked ready for a fight. Her eyes pierced into Marlene's like daggers.

Marlene pulled herself to her feet. Tifa had stopped a foot away from her and was staring at her viciously, yet still smiling.

"You have to trust me little girl. You don't know true freedom until you've seen and heard the things I have. You don't know the truth until you've lived the life I have for the past few weeks. You don't _realize_ how much of the universe is at your fingertips. He is real, Marlene. He is real and he is everything you've been looking for your whole life."

Marlene shook her head. She didn't want to hear the name of the "he" Tifa was referring to.

"Tifa… don't you understand what they've done to you!" She yelled. Upon another moments thought she added, "No… of course you don't. They're drugging you, or… or brainwashing you or something. Tifa you have to come with me. You _have_ to! This place is insane! And it's take you with it!"

"Life is insane. The only path to true mental stability lies with him."

"_He_ was insane. _He_ was a murderer! _He_ destroyed your entire town when you were a kid!"

Tifa's smile abruptly disappeared and was replaced with an angry, scornful look.

"How dare you!" She shouted, and then lowered her head in thought. After a moment she looked up and said, "I won't kill you Marlene. But I _will _make you hurt."

As quick as her smile had disappeared before, one of her long legs was hurdling towards Marlene's chest in a sideways-kick motion. Marlene managed to catch her foot with both hands, but only acted as a speed-bump in the kicks thunderous path, which drove her back hard into the wall before plummeting into her stomach. Marlene felt every ounce of air shoot out of her at once. Tifa lowered her leg and Marlene slowly slid down the wall, landing back in a sitting position on the floor, holding her stomach and fighting for air.

Tifa had hit her only once before that moment. It was years ago and Marlene and her had gotten into one storm of an argument. The freshly formed rebellion was just getting its legs and Marlene felt they needed to make a major push towards recruiting members of the (now unemployed) Turks. Tifa had disagreed and they began to fight over it. Had it been an argument as simple as that, no blows would have come to be. However Marlene made the mistake of bringing up a taboo subject. She remembered the line well, because she made note never to speak it, or of it, again. In the heat of the yelling, she had cried out

"Oh, Tifa! Get over the idea that Cloud is going to come rushing back into our lives to help us! He hasn't come before, and he's not coming now! He's forgotten you, why can't you do the same to him!"

Before the last word was out of her mouth, the backside of Tifa's gloved hand had slammed across her face. She stood with her mouth open for a few moments, considered screaming at her, but instead, simply walked out of the bar and never spoke of him again.

Of course, hours later Tifa came rushing to find her, apologizing in tears and telling her it would never happen again. Marlene instantly forgave her - but the grudge she would hold against Cloud was just beginning. She understood why Tifa had hit her. It didn't dawn upon her until that moment when the locked-away emotions of Tifa's heart had been triggered by a senseless comment.

As far back as she could remember, Tifa never seemed to be bothered by the fact that Cloud had just suddenly upped and left them one day. Even the day he first went missing, she seemed calm… almost as if she knew it was bound to happen. Sure she was a little quieter, and perhaps a bit less lively, but she never seemed sad. Just… calm - as if waiting for something.

Now, of course, Marlene knew the truth. She knew that every day he didn't walk back into their lives, Tifa's heart broke. Every week he wasn't around, her smile would grow a little smaller. Every month he didn't show, she died a little. That's why she seemed to be waiting for something. She was.

Marlene had felt hatred towards Cloud ever since that day. She could understand him walking away from the people. She could understand him walking away from his friend. Heck, she could even understand him walking away from herself. But not Tifa. It wasn't right. Regardless if he ever did or not, she loved him. He had to know it… and he just didn't care. Which is why it was so hard for her to go to him for help. She guessed in her mind that he wouldn't even know who she was or what she was talking about. She thought he was going to be either crazy… or dead. He was neither, just one hell of a mess. Tifa would have loved him under any circumstance.

And now here she was, standing over Marlene like a god passing judgment down on his creation, and Cloud could be anywhere on the planet. Could have given up. Could be caught. Could be dead.

Didn't matter. Cloud wasn't the problem right now. Tifa was.

Marlene pulled herself to her feet. Her body hurt just doing that - she was in no condition to fight. She was just too mentally and physically weak from the past few days. If Tifa wanted to, she could probably easily leave her for dead.

"Are you ready to accept him into your life?" Tifa questioned, seemingly sensing the mood of defeat within Marlene.

Marlene bit her lip and stared at the ground. If there was another answer that would have saved her - it wasn't showing. She lifted her head back up, and after a moments hesitation, she shook her head.

"Good girl." Tifa said with a smile. "This way."

Tifa took her by the hand and began leading her down the curved hallway. Marlene knew it was a loss not making an escape attempt, but only a temporary one. Mentally, she was tough. If they thought she was going to break and give in to their twisted beliefs as easily as Tifa, they were wrong. Dead wrong.

However, as she was being led down the hallway in the same direction all the cold air was going towards (or rather, being _sucked_ towards)- she couldn't help the terrible feeling that was rising up in her.

Another scream was heard from some far-off place as Marlene took one last look back at the room she had came from. The cold air pushed the hair from her face and made her squint her eyes, and as they slowly rounded the corner into uncharted territory, the door of her prison rolled out of view. She never thought she would feel this way, but she longed to be back in the room.

The dark unknown lied ahead.


	11. A General Mistake

Rex Arinthone sat in his office, wiping the drying blood from his strong knuckles. He didn't feel good about what he had just done to the rebel prisoner in the other room, he felt great about it. The satisfied smirk on his face wouldn't go away as he ran the once-white cloth back and forth over his hands, painting the rag a dark red. He had put the rebel dog in his place - taught him a lesson that would soon echo through the entire resistance. If you messed with Shinra, you would pay.

His office, which should have been cleaned out by now if it hadn't been for his recent revoke on his retirement plan, was one big contradiction to the man himself. Rex was strong and fierce, a cunning general on the battlefield and a dangerous player in the game of war. His voice wasn't so much a sound as it was a battle trumpet to his men. A leader - bold and relentless through and through. His office, however, seemed more fitting for an accountant, or a lawyer. It was furnished with classy looking leather chairs and old, polished, oak cabinets and desks. Dim lights gave it an almost restaurant-like ambiance. Bookshelves and paintings lined the tall wooden walls. And at the far end of the room, overlooked by two giant windows, the general sat smiling like some twisted security guard in a museum.

The settling silence was sharply broken into by the shrill ringing of the generals cell phone, which laid lazily on the top of his desk. He frowned at it for a moment in thought as he quickly finished wiping his hands with the rag, then tossing the moist cloth into a waste basket to his side. He picked up the phone. It looked dainty and frail in his large, war-experienced hands.

"Yes." He said, flipping it open. It wasn't a question as much as it was an "OK" for the person on the other hand to begin speaking. He listened to them as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hand on his broad, clean-shaven chin. "That's strange…" He stated suspiciously. After a few seconds passed, he added, "Yes, certainly have that checked out immediately. Report back when you're finished."

He hung up the phone before waiting for an answer and set it back down onto the table. His hands steadily found their way to his temples and he began slowly massaging the sides of his head. He did this when he needed to think clearly. He also did it when he felt their was something wrong. Right now, he was doing it for both those reasons.

Standing up, he laced his fingers behind his back and began pacing the large office. His path followed a familiar line, walking first to both windows for a glance outside before heading towards his favorite painting to the right of the windows. He stopped in front of it and looked up at with great pride.

His father watched over the office from behind the golden framed painting. He was large and strong looking, just as his son would be. One bulging arm held a black machine gun, the other a wide, sleek-looking sword. The man had a smirk on his face that was undoubtedly where his son had obtained the same look from. He was a Shinra elite. He was the guy who called the shots. He was the guy that, if he had come to power at the right time, would have ended the rebel resistance before it ever began. He was the guy Rex Arinthone respected most. And most importantly, he was the guy who lost his life to a rebel attack, six years ago.

Rex sucked in his chest and gave the painting an honorable salute, using his other hand to wipe away the single tear that had cropped up in left eye.

"You always get me, pop." He said, smiling and shaking his head. "Every time."

The cell phone suddenly burst to life again. Rex walked over to the table and picked it up.

"Yes." He answered, his voice not losing once ounce of the authority or power it had the last time he spoke to the soldier. The voice on the other end gave his report. Rex only debated for a moment before saying, "Bring a squad down to the detention center, I'll meet you there."

Suddenly the general was moving with disciplined speed, and an intense look on his face. No one would have been able to even imagine that this was the man that had been wiping tears from his eyes only moments ago. He went to his desk, picked up the machine gun that was lying in the bottom drawer, and fastened a thin blade to his calf. In another moment, he was out the door of the office and marching towards the elevator at the end of the hall. As he passed two soldiers in their classic blue uniforms outside his office, they promptly saluted him, showing their respect. He gave them a nod, but did not stop to chit-chat. In times like these, seconds became as important as breaths. Rex learned that the hard way in his younger years.

He reached the elevator and pressed the button, then crossed his arms and waited patiently. In a few moments, the doors slid open and he was inside, pressing the floor button for the detention level. The elevator began its descent. Rex's patience seemed to be falling as quickly as the box he was in. He tapped his foot and began breathing a little heavier. After what seemed like an hour, the elevator reached the floor and he quickly slid through the opening doors. At the end of this hall, five soldiers and Denzel were standing outside a thick door. A thick door that was the only thing keeping the rebel dog, Teioh, from freedom.

"General." Denzel said as Rex neared.

"What's the situation right now." Rex said, his voice cold and stern.

"Like I said, the two soldiers that entered ten minutes ago did not have authorization. Gerald let it go, thinking it was just a routine check. When they didn't come out in a few minutes, he tried to go inside to get them. The door was locked and has been since. They're not answering their radios, and won't respond when we call to them from out her. The code to the door has been over-written so we need your key to get inside."

"There's no way out of there besides this door, correct?" Rex asked.

"Only the ventilation shaft, but after he discovered the door was locked, Gerald sealed it and turned on the fans. They can't get though it now, it's impossible."

Rex was already at the door before Denzel finished speaking. He pulled out his key card and quickly swiped it through the lock. The door slid open, but as soon as it did, a hail of machine gun fire came blasting from within. Rex dodged to the side of the door just in the nick of time as the bullets hurdled through the air, landing in the wall on the opposite side of it. All the soldiers moved to either side and readied their guns. The doors slid back closed.

"Who the hell is in there!" Rex yelled out in rage. When he got no answer, the rage became fury. "Son of a-

Suddenly, Rex's cell phone, which he scooped up in his office and placed in his pocket, began ringing. He eyed the soldiers suspiciously before yanking it out and answering it.

"What." He spit into the small phone.

"Is this General Rex Arinthone?" The voice asked.

Rex felt something terrible land in his stomach.

"Yes." He answered, tightening every muscle in his face to keep his calm. "And who, may I ask, is _this_?"

After a short pause, the voice responded, "I was told to inform you that names aren't important, general. It's what's inside the name that counts."

Rex let out a thunderous yell and pounded the wall behind him with his fist.

"You won't live through this, I PROMISE YOU THAT!" He shouted into the phone. Every vain in his head looked like it was ready to burst. "You hear me!?" He called into the room behind him.

"You come in this room and you die, do _you_ hear _me_?" The voice answered through the phone.

Rex lowered it and looked over at Denzel.

"Smoke and clear." He said in a low voice.

"Yes general." Denzel answered. "Don't worry sir, there is no way they're getting out of this building. It would be impossible, I already have all soldiers on high alert."

"I don't want them leaving that ROOM, do you understand."

"Yes sir."

"Now smoke and clear."

As soon as he said the words, the entire squad went into action. They took their places around the door with guns raised and ready. Denzel took point, pulling out a small white grenade and leaning up pressing up against the wall to the side of the door. He gave a nod and then pressed the door-open button. As soon as the door was opened up a crack, Denzel tossed the smoke bomb in, which instantly began spewing out white mist as soon as it made contact with the ground. The gunner inside began firing again, but this time it was matched by gun fire from all five of the soldiers. Rex stood to the side watching intently. They fired into every spot they could, drowning the air inside in a sea of bullets. Denzel blocked his ears to shield himself from the intense volume of six guns blazing at the same time.

By the time all the soldiers had to stop and re-load, it was like a battlefield in the hallway - ripe with the stench of bullets and splintered concrete. As the door slid closed, the gunner inside was amazingly still firing. When the door closed, the fire stopped.

"What the hell!?" A soldier called out.

"It's like they're a ghost or something!" Another added.

"Not a ghost." Rex said, his voice low and dangerous. "A machine." He added, pointing to the wall across from the door.

All the soldiers looked back. On it was one single mark. A hole that had been dug all the way through to the next room. A hole that, Rex knew, was too accurate for any human to make.

"Denzel." Rex called out, seeming to be on the verge of insanity, but keeping calm.

"General?" He answered.

"Leave the door opened, the machine gun turret at the end of the hall, that hey somehow rigged to the door, will eventually run out of bullets."

Denzel looked shocked.

"Where do those vents go." Rex asked, running a hand through his hair, which was now sweating furiously.

"Uh…well… everywhere, but… they can't just get out of this place. This is Shinra headquarters, general. It's impossible!" Denzel answered.

"Impossible like it was to go through the ventilation shaft?" Rex asked.

Denzel had no answer.

Suddenly, a stray thought found its way into the generals head. He rubbed his temples and looked at the ground.

"No…" He murmured.

"General?" Denzel said, walking over to him. Without a word, Rex began promptly heading towards the elevator. "What do you want me to do sir?" Denzel called after him.

"Clear that room… search the area… kill them on sight." Rex answered, but clearly didn't have his mind on what he was saying. He got in the elevator and hit the button back to his floor near the top of the building.

He cursed to himself for not realizing it sooner. The guards outside his room. They weren't the same. If it had been any other moment, he would have asked them for their ID numbers and names, but he was in such a rush… seconds were like breaths. One was dark skinned, the other, short and kind of pudgy.

When the doors opened to the hall outside his office, his dreaded thoughts were confirmed. The two guards were missing. He stormed down the hall, stopping midway and kicking open the door that led to their quarters. On the floor were two unconscious guards… his two _regular_ guards.

"NO!" He yelled at himself, and then continued down the hall towards his office. Upon reaching the doors, he kicked them open with a thunderous thrust of his beefy leg.

Nothing there. Nothing except a few papers that had been thrown off his desk by the strong breeze coming from… the open window behind his desk. He ran to it and stuck half his body out with such force, he almost fell out.

"Wha… no… how…" He couldn't find words to fit the anger he was feeling. After a few more moments of hanging out of the window trying to keep his head from bursting open, he spun around to see Denzel in his doorway watching him.

"What happened general?"

"This…. THIS was an INSIDE JOB!" Rex screamed, slamming his desk. "Do you understand? They were helped by some PIECE OF SHIT RAT!" He picked up his chair and flung it at the wall. Denzel was speechless again. "I want them found! I want the rebels found! I want the RAT found! I want EVERYONE found that had a hand in this!"

"Yes sir." Denzel said. "I'll issue a lockdown order for the entire building."

"I'll kill them." Rex muttered as slammed his fists onto the top of his desk.

Denzel quickly took off to get his task done. Rex watched him go, breathing fire-like bursts of air. When he was alone again, he looked up at the painting of his father on the wall. The proud smirk seemed to be replaced by a disappointed stare. Rex let out another yell as he kicked the desk.


	12. One Last Mission

It was a peaceful afternoon in Midgar. A bright blue blanket wrapped over the skies, dotted with the occasional puffy white cloud, or flock of birds cutting their way through the warm air. The city was one big circle, at the center of which was a tall building that overlooked everything and every_one_ around it. Shinra headquarters.

The sun turned the side of the building into a giant glowing stick coming out of the earth - reflecting off the many, many windows that covered it. If a passerby was to look up at it from the streets below, the three people that were slowly descending down the side of the giant tower would appear as nothing more than dots, lost amidst a wide sea of sunlight.

Loeb - who had pulled off his Shinra mask, but was still dressed in the classic blue garb - was slowly lowering down the rope, holding on tightly to the man he had, only moments ago, used a harness to attach themselves to each other.

"How you doin buddy?" The dark-skinned teenager asked, not taking his eyes off the rope he was carefully moving along.

"I'm hanging in." Teioh answered. His voice was still weak from the beating he had received at the hands of Rex Arinthone an hour ago. His ribs hurt, and his face was badly cut and bruised, but mentally he was feeling great. His friends had did it. They had gotten him out, just like he hoped they would. Now he could get to Marlene… he could save her before it was too late.

They just had to make it down this damned tower.

"How bout you, Put." Loeb called up to the pudgy, sweaty guy above them.

Putter looked down. He immediately recognized that as a mistake.

"Uh… I'm… I'm hanging in too." He managed to squeeze out of his suddenly-dry throat. "Uh… hey Loeb, ya think you could move maybe a little faster though?"

"I'm trying man! I'm doing this with two people, remember that."

"Well, it's just… If you don't hurry, I think I might throw up."

"Putter!" Loeb cried out.

"Sorry! But I am! I don't like heights!"

"Jesus man! Don't freak out on me up there, you slip - _we _slip!"

"I didn't say I was going to slip, I said I was going to throw up."

"Yea, well don't get nervous, either. Your hands get too sweaty and their gonna slide right off this rope."

Putter gulped hard, suddenly tightening his grip on the rope. Tightening it so much he stopped moving.

"Loeb, I can't do this!"

In perfect timing, a strong gust of wind kicked in from the east, sending the entire rope and everyone on it flailing around in the air.

"WHY!?" Putter screamed and shut his eyes tightly.

"Relax." Loeb said, briefly shifting his grip to adjust to the winds push. "And keep moving! They're gonna figure this whole thing out pretty soon you know."

"I CAN'T! Just leave me! JUST LEAVE ME!" Putter began yelling.

"Fine, I'll leave you." Loeb said calmly. "Just know when I get to the bottom of this rope, I'm setting it on fire."

"Oh geeze." Putter said nervously and began slowly climbing down again.

"Hey, you gonna call him or what?" Teioh asked, coughing into his hand.

"Oh yea." Loeb said, and stopped moving. Putter was very thankful for the break again. "Let's just hope this number we got is right."

With that, Loeb pulled out a cell phone wrapped in a piece of paper. He grabbed the tip of the paper and rolled the phone into his hand before reading off the number and dialing it.

"What?" A voice said angrily. Loeb put on a fake voice, for no real particular reason, and responded.

"Is this General Rex Arinthone?"

"Yes." The voice said, then added, "And who, may I ask, is _this_?"

Loeb pulled the phone away and covered it.

"He wants to know who it is."

Teioh told him what to say.

"I was told to inform you that names aren't important, general. It's what's inside the name that counts." Loeb answered, almost laughing as he said the last few words. Even Putter heard the yell that followed that comment. Only Loeb heard the pounding of something though. They shared a laugh.

"You won't live through this, I PROMISE YOU THAT!" Came bursting from the tiny cell phone. "You hear me!?"

"You come in this room and you die, do _you_ hear _me_?" Loeb replied, before slamming the phone shut.

"Ha-ha! That old fool thinks we're in there!" Putter cried out cheerily.

"Yea, and let's make sure we're on the ground by the time he figures out we're not." Teioh added.

"Good point." Loeb said, chucking the cell phone into the breeze. It began its long fall towards the earth below.

Ten minutes later the three rebels were standing at the bottom of the rope, hovering around the wrecked cell phone.

"Wow… that was a pretty strong phone." Putter said, looking over the mangled, but still all together, cell phone.

"Yea, I'm just glad we're not as messed up as it is." Loeb said, shooting a glare at Putter.

"Hey! We made it, didn't we?" He shouted defensively.

"Not yet." Teioh said, looking around. They were at the side of the Shinra building, and if he knew Rex Arinthone as well as he thought he did, the general would have figured them out by now. "We need to get as far away from this place as fast as possible."

Loeb looked at Putter, whose thick, tangled, black hair was matted down to his head from sweat. Putter looked back at him confused before shouting

"Oh yea!" He pulled out a cell phone and began making a call.

"Come on Put! Pull it together!" Loeb yelled at him.

"Hey, I was the only one with enough guts to do this with ya, so cut me a break."

Loeb would have said something, only he was right. For all his shortcomings, he had to give it to the pudgy guy. He was brave… like his father.

In a few minutes, a large truck with a covered back came screeching around the corner. It skidded to a halt in front of them.

"Let's roll!" The man in the drivers seat called out. "Teioh! Good too see ya again man!"

"Same." Teioh said as Loeb wrapped his arm around his friends torso and began helping him to the back of the truck.

"Put! You made it!" The driver shouted and started laughing. Putter shook his head and followed the two rebels to the back of the truck.

Loeb helped Teioh in first, before climbing in behind him. Putter hopped in last, turning around and pulling the dark green tarp over the backside of the open truck. Loeb slapped his hand off the trucks wall, and with that, the driver punched the gas and they were off. Loeb flopped down into the bench that lined the side of the tunnel-shaped room and let out a long breath. Putter took a seat opposite of him, and Teioh sat beside him.

"Mission success." Putter proudly stated.

"Save the celebration till we're a few miles away and we've got no tail." A coarse voice said from the front of the room.

Teioh squinted towards the voice, letting his eyes adjust from the bright, sunny day to the dim trucks interior. Sitting on the floor, leaning up against the wall was a man in a cloak of some sort. His head was hung low, letting a thick hood hang over his face. He could have asked who it was, he could have guessed, but he didn't have to. He knew.

"Cloud Strife." He said in a low voice. He felt somewhere between shocked and angry. This was Cloud Strife. _The_ Cloud Strife. The guy was legendary for what he did in the early years of Shinra. But… he was also Cloud Strife, the chocobo rider who beat him and his dad the one time he got to ride along in a race. _He _was the reason there only _was_ one time. It seemed petty when stacked up to the list of accomplishments this guy had, but it didn't change the fact that it hurt Teioh to even look at him.

Cloud lifted his head, and there he was. The old dog himself. Teioh was even more surprised. Marlene had told him Cloud looked bad, but… that was an understatement. Either she toned it down, or he'd gotten worse.

"You're Cloud Strife." Teioh said. Even _he_ wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question.

Cloud said nothing.

"Why…?" Teioh asked. "Why are you here?"

"Teioh…" Loeb began.

"It's OK." Cloud cut in. "He has a right to ask. I'm here because me and you have recently come into a common interest."

Teioh frowned.

"People we care about have fallen into the same hands." Cloud began, his voice was calm - steady. "Now, I'm not entirely sure if you're one of the ones that doesn't care for me, or hates me. Most hate me, so I'd understand. Regardless of how you feel about me, it doesn't really matter right now. The only thing that matters is that we're both driven men. I understand you care a great deal about Marlene? Well, I felt the same way for Tifa. You want to save her? Well, I want to help…" Cloud's voice drifted off, as well did his eyes. He suddenly made a cringing face and grabbed his leg. In seconds, it was twitching uncontrollably, banging off the floor of the truck. All three of the young men watched him.

"What's happening to him?" Teioh asked.

"He has… attacks. Some kind of muscle contractions or something." Loeb answered.

"He'll be OK in a couple of seconds." Putter added.

"I wasn't worried." Teioh quickly replied. "Just curious."

"What was I saying?" Cloud asked once his attack was over.

Teioh shook his head. He was going to get help from _this_ guy? He seemed as weak and feeble as any other old man he knew, if not more so. But there was… something about him. Maybe it was the confidence in his eyes… or maybe it was just the guys incredibly built reputation. Whatever it was, even as an old man with spasm attacks and a forgetful head on his shoulders, he was still intimidating.

Seeming to sense Teioh's thoughts, Cloud gave him a sharp look. For a moment, Teioh was thrown back a bit and didn't know what to say.

"You were saying," Loeb cut in, drawing Clouds faded blue eyes away. "that you want to help him."

_Help me_. The words rung in Teioh's head, and he couldn't keep himself from constantly wondering… _How?_

_---_

_-_

_--- _

The sun was going down over the Western sea, and one large truck, along with four small figures, had become silhouettes in the descending giants reddish-yellow glow.

"So you think we can honestly just walk right in the front door of this place?" Teioh stated with a hint of sarcasm. He was sitting on the dusty ground, legs folded and arms stretched behind him holding his body at a slant. Across from him, Cloud was drinking from a small flask and sitting on top of a wooden crate. He finished his drink, and, after leaning his elbows on his knees, gave Teioh another intimidating stare.

"Yes." He said with such confidence, either he was a fool… or he was right.

"And he's even been there before… up in the mountains, that is." Putter added. The short, tubby guy was sitting with his back to the sun, happily chowing down on some sort of sandwich that was overflowing on both sides with meats and cheeses. "He's been there a couple of time, actually." He added, wiping his lips with the arm of his shirt.

"Twenty years ago." Teioh added on top of that, trying to return Cloud's piercing stare.

"Mountains don't change." Loeb said from his position across from Putter.

"No, but people do." Teioh shot back.

As if to accentuate the harshness of his words, a cold breeze brushed through the men's make-shift camp. Teioh squinted into the breeze before nodding his head towards Cloud's side.

"Can you even use that thing anymore?" He asked, referring to the large, broad sword than laid sleeping in its sheath beside its owner.

"I guess we'll find out, won't we." Cloud answered. His voice was as gentle and swift as the breeze.

"This isn't a joke to me!" Teioh said, leaning up. "I care about Marlene _and_ Tifa. More than you can even understand. They're everything to me."

"Good. Use that motivation when you get up close enough to those mountains that you could smell the death in them."

"Yea, and I'm wondering what's _your_ motivation?"

"Teioh…" Loeb said in a low voice.

"No." Teioh said, brushing him off. "I want to know. I don't want to get up in those mountains and be stuck with some… crazy old loser!"

Loeb and Putter both glanced over at Cloud and watched for his reaction. It was like waiting for a drunk to ride a chocobo… something bad was bound to happen.

Instead, Cloud simply took another drink from the flask.

"See… he's out of his mind." Teioh said, gesturing to Cloud. "We'd be better off ourselves."

Cloud finished off the flask and set it down beside him. He leaned up on his knees again and laced his fingers together, staring down at them - he was silent. The three young men all looked around at each other. Putter looked worried, Loeb a little less so, but Teioh looked satisfied. Nothing between them besides the dying suns glow and the occasional cool breeze that swept in from the ocean.

"I'm uh…" Cloud suddenly began, cutting through the silent tension. He was still staring down at his hands, which he was now rubbing. "I'm on a clock kid."

Teioh looked confused. "What?"

Cloud shook his head. "When I was probably around your age, I was injected with a substance called "Mako"."

"I know what Mako is."

"Yea, well… you don't _fully_ know what it is until you get the stuff coursing through your veins." Cloud said, his voice almost… sad. "Turns out-" He stopped short and began heartily laughing to himself. The three others exchanged another confused glance. When he was finished he took a deep whiff of air through his nose and continued. "Turns out there's some side effects."

All three listened intently.

"Hence the gray hair, the muscle spasms, _and_ the forgetfulness. I'm… not doing so good, to say the least."

Teioh frowned. Marlene hadn't told him Cloud was sick… just old and a little crazy.

"Look, I know I did something horrible to Tifa and Marlene when I left. I understand that, and I understand that's probably why you've got it out for me."

Teioh blinked. He was surprised. The man speaking to him suddenly didn't seem so crazy. He seemed… vulnerable.

"But I'm dying kid. Can you understand that? I don't know how much time I've got left… the only thing I _do_ know is that I can't die like this. Not like this."

"What do you mean?" Teioh questioned.

"I've got to do this." Cloud said, looking up at the other three for the first time. His eyes weren't intimidating anymore, they were just sad, and a little tired-looking. "I've got to save her… got to save them both. If I can do that… if I can do something like that before… the end…"

For a moment, Teioh swore that the mighty hero Cloud was going to cry. He didn't.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life." Cloud said, his voice small and weak now. "I won't make another one by not finishing this."

Another cold breeze, this one made Teioh shiver. At least, that's what he told himself did it. What it probably really was, was that, for the first time, he felt good about this mission. He had been wrong. He wasn't going into the mountains with an old, crazy loser. He was going with a fiercely determined man on the final mission of his life… one that didn't have any option but success.

"What are we doing waiting around?" Putter suddenly asked. "Let's get moving! We ride through the night, we can be there by morning!" He added cheerily.

All three of them looked at Cloud. He, rightfully so, had the deciding vote. When he stood, it filled them all with great morale.

"Alright!" Putter shouted. "To Mt. Nibel! Let's kick some cult ass!"

Loeb laughed and slapped the pudgy guy on his back as they headed to the truck. Teioh walked over to Cloud.

"Look, I-

"Don't worry about it." Cloud cut in.

Teioh looked at him for a moment, before nodding and turning towards the truck. He glanced over his shoulder at Cloud - who was now facing the open oceans surface, having a stare down with the sun.

"You coming?" He asked.

"In a second."

Teioh climbed into the back of the truck, sat down, and turned to watch the dark silhouette in the red suns dying light. He didn't know exactly what Cloud was thinking, but he had an idea of his own. He thought Cloud was wondering if it was the last sunset he'd ever see…


	13. Guests in Nibelheim

There was a door. It was long, metal, and perhaps the most intimidating door Cloud Strife had ever seen. He stood before it in awe, arms dropped lazily to his sides, mouth slightly agape. His eyes were burning holes through the middle of the giant door - no, _gate_ was a more appropriate term for what this beast was. Because behind it was something deadly, and dangerous - but it was also everything Cloud had been looking for almost the entire last twenty years of his life. He couldn't remember how he came to be standing before it, nor could he remember why exactly he wanted to pry his way inside of it so bad in the first place. He slowly raised a cautious, outstretched hand to the face of the metal structure. His bare palm made contact with it. It was ice cold, but it somehow made him feel warm inside. He listened as hard as he ever had, but could hear nothing from the other side.

When suddenly, like an answer to his yearning ears, the voice came.

_"Cloud."_

The voice.

The voice he loved. The voice he knew. The voice he wished he could see. It was everything that kept him sane, and at the same time - the sole reason he was crazy. It was her… it had to be. The flower girl. _His_ flower girl. Only _her_ voice could be so sweet and smooth and perfect and real. And he knew that if he could only ever reach her… reach the voice, everything in his head would become right again. His disease would just… go away. Everyone that had grown such a hatred for him in their hearts would forgot about it. Would forget about all the mistakes he made. Forget almost entirely about the man himself. But then, like a holy spirit, he would return - and they would welcome him back with open arms, and every good memory anyone ever had about him would be shared throughout the entire population. One mind, connected by the sheer love that radiated so powerfully within each separate one.

He was to be… almost God-like.

And now, here he was. Seconds away from opening that magic door to freedom, and he was more scared than he had ever been before. His hand began to tremble on top the steel frame. His heart was skipping beats as randomly as a case of the hiccups. This was it.

_Aeris… I'm coming._

_"Cloud?"_

_Aeris?_

_"Cloud…"_

_---_

_--_

_--- _

"Cloud?"

Cloud shot up and took a deep breath of air.

"Geeze, man - you were scaring the hell out of us there for a second." Loeb said, shaking his head. He, along with Teioh and Putter, was sitting in the back of the truck Cloud had come to be familiar with. They sat… and they watched him.

"What… I don't…" Cloud tried forming a sentence, but if there was one up in that mysterious tank-of-a-brain of his, it wasn't coming out.

"You had a nightmare. Forget about it… we're almost at Nibelheim." Teioh said.

Putter added, "Yea. And we could use you at full strength, so if you don't mind - could you try waking yourself up a bit?"

Cloud rubbed the sides of his head and pulled himself into a bench along the side of the trucks interior wall.

"How long?" He asked.

"Did you sleep? A handful of hours at the most." Loeb answered. The black teenager was wiping off a pair of short - but very deadly-looking - swords.

The truck, which also double up as a boat (technology had come a long way in twenty years), barreled over the rocky road that led to the mouth of Mt. Nibel and the town of Nibelheim that lay before it. It's heavy-duty tires kicked rocks and bits of earth out from beneath as it came to a slow halt in front of the sharp peaks that made up the ferocious mountains face. A cold air was howling through them, giving off a high pitched whistle that was as intimidating as it was constant. The driver slowly pressed down on the brakes as he stared up at the jagged teeth of the mountains. It certainly was a site to see.

When the truck was in park, the back flap opened, and the four men inside systematically began hopping out. Loeb spit a slimy ball of saliva into the dirt, vanquishing the taste of the trucks stale air with it. Putter, whose wide frame was but a mere speck in the face of the giant mountain, took a long, panning look upwards. Loeb and Teioh traced the same line of vision. Cloud, however, didn't so much as give it a glance. He had seen this monstrosity before, and the effect of it's looming presence had dwindled to him - even having not seen it in some twenty-odd years.

"Is it too late to turn back?" Putter asked, his usually strong voice nothing but a whisper carried along in the howl of the mountains breeze.

"Too late for us, that's for sure." Teioh answered, walking to the front of the truck. "OK Herm," He called into the trucks driver-side window. "You can head to Cosmo Canyon now. We'll call you in a bit with an update on the situation."

The driver, Herm, nodded. He put the truck back in drive, but leaned out the window before pulling away.

"You guys be careful now, you hear? You give my cell phone a call at the first sign of trouble. I'll come running with the cavalry faster than you can say "Knights of the Round"."

Teioh gave him a warm smile. "I know you will, my friend. I know you will."

And with a final nod of his head, Herm pulled the truck away - leaving the four men alone beneath the looming peaks of the mountain.

Cloud suddenly reach around and felt for his sword. It was there. He feared in his newfound state of forgetfulness he had left it in the truck - and that would be bad. It was the only thing he could truly count on, and not having it with him made him feel… weak - as he found out heading into the Shinra tower, which seemed like years ago to him now. The rest of them were well-armed. Teioh had a pair of machine guns laying in wait beneath his black vest. Loeb had now sheathed the two short swords, which dangled from either side of the holster he wore around his waist. Putter had his own home-made weapon. Two short (but solid) wooden stick, linked together by a short chain. Putter had called the makeshift weapon "Nunchucks", but Cloud thought that was just a fancy word for "Sticks on a chain". Regardless, the team was well equipped, or at least Cloud hoped, for whatever evil had nested in the mountains.

As the crew began walking towards the entrance to the town, Teioh thought that the long shadows they cast out in front of themselves made them look heroic. He thought that this is what things must have been like before Shinra. When there was trouble afoot, the vigilantes would roll up - kick ass, take names, and restore justice to the planet. It seemed like such a romantic time to live in… he wished now that he had. Mostly, though, because he was getting an unshakable knot in the pit of his stomach that told him something was going to go terribly wrong here.

"So you grew up here, huh Mr. Strife?" Putter asked as they approached the town.

"Yea… a long time ago, I guess."

"Got any tips?"

"Tips?"

"Yea, you know. Like maybe a shortcut through a basement trap door or something. Just incase we find ourselves waist-deep in some trouble."

"No." His answer was cold and definite. So much, in fact, that Putter ceased to ask the dozen or so other questions he had ready for Cloud. They walked in silence.

When they reached the towns entrance, Cloud was surprised. It hadn't changed a bit. Maybe a little wear-and-tear on everything, but alas, still exactly the same as the last time he had seen it. The white picket fences on both sides of the wooden arch that served as the "gate" (so to say) of the town. The cluttered circle of friendly-looking homes. The Inn to their immediate left, Tifa's house to their right - and a bit further down, Cloud's house. It was as if the town had been perfectly preserved… awaiting the arrival of its former resident patiently.

"Ring any bells?" Teioh questioned, glancing over at Cloud.

"More than I thought I had left."

Suddenly, a door burst open to their right. The three rebels were instantly readying their weapons. Cloud frowned and turned to face the source of the noise. Putter let out a loud battle cry as he took an action-ready pose.

"Woa-hoa! At ease there boys!" A voice cried out with a funny accent.

Headed their way was a cheerful-looking blond girl. Everyone eased up but Cloud - who now, for the first time, shifted to a bit of a defensive stance.

"Hi!" She called to them with that funny accent of hers. She was a cute girl, couldn't have been any older than twenty, and wore a smile so wide, every one of her perfectly white teeth were exposed. White teeth that were quite the opposite of the white dress she wore, which was blotted with dirt stains and had jaggedly-torn edges. The dress ran from her chest down to just below her knees, stopping and hanging lazily over a pair of dirty, bare feet. Teioh thought she looked like the most beautiful hobo he'd ever seen.

"H-Hi." Putter managed to spit out, obviously taken back by the girls looks. She came to a stop just a few feet from him. She was rather short, standing only an inch or two below the awestruck Putter - who was quite short in his own right.

"What're ya'll doin out in these parts?" The girl asked, still smiling with that over-the-edge cheerfulness. Teioh knew it was a personality trait that would get old fast.

"We…" Putter began, trying to answer but could not.

"We're just passing through." Cloud did it for him.

"Passing through?" The girl repeated, suddenly changing her face to a sad, puppy dog look. This girl didn't know the meaning of the word subtle. "You mean… to the m-mountains?"

"If that is where the road takes us, than yes." Cloud said.

"Oh no mister!" She said, shaking her head and going super-wide-eyed. "You can't go up there, no-no-no! No, I believe you can not!"

"Why's that?" Loeb asked, squinting at her suspiciously. She shot her head towards him and gave him a look like he was crazy.

"Because!" She said with a mix of concern and desperation. She rushed over to him and cupped her hands around one of his. "There is evil up in that there mountain!"

"Evil… do you know much about it?" Teioh asked, suddenly very interested. The blond gave him a startled look, before rushing up to him and doing the same hand-cupping action to him.

"_Very_ much." She whispered, standing on her tippy-toes to get closer to his ear. He pulled away with a confused look on his face. This was the strangest girl he'd ever met.

"Come on, let's get moving." Cloud commanded, brushing past the blond girl and marching determinedly towards the mountains. She frowned at him as her mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Mister! I said you can not! No-no-no, you can not!"

Cloud kept walking, not even so much as acknowledging her.

"I can not let you pass."

There was the tone Cloud had been waiting for. He stopped dead in his tracks. If there was a trap ready to be sprung, now would be the time. His eyes darted around his hometown, searching for any subtle giveaway. The suns gleam off a waiting marksman. The gentle shuffle in a patch of grass hiding a squad of men. A bird taking startled flight from a sudden movement behind a house.

Only, he saw none of those things.

"How are you going to stop us?" He asked and began turning around, his hand worked its way to the handle of his sword.

When he made the one-eighty, he saw the girl, sitting on Putters foot - arms and legs wrapped around _his _leg like a knot around a pole. Cloud sighed. Putter shrugged.

"Maybe we could at least hear what she has to say." He said, gently trying to shake the girl from his leg. "I mean, she seems…"

He wanted to say "normal". They all knew he did, but he couldn't. Because this girl was anything but. Which meant she was either acting, or was actually this far off her rocker.

Either way, Cloud didn't like it.

---

--

---

The four of them sat around a big circle of a table inside a large, cozy living room/kitchen. The blond girl, who had introduced herself as Mindy upon entering the tiny home in Nibelheim, was working furiously in the kitchen - trying to make some drinks and food.

"Really, we don't want anything." Teioh said, putting up a hand to gesture her to stop. "We have to be leaving very shortly."

"Hush now! It's only being polite!" She called out from underneath the sink where she was rapidly shoving aside various bottles of assorted liquids.

All four men gave each other a look. Cloud looked the least happy out of all of them, although that wasn't much of a change anyway. Teioh let out a long sigh and looked around. The house seemed much more normal than its owner. Plain white walls. Plain brown furniture. Plain steps and doors, and only one picture hung in the entire two-room downstairs area.

"You have roommates?" Teioh asked. The other three at the table followed his line of sight to the wall near the front door. There hung a large framed picture of the blond girl - on either side of her were two taller (yet equally good looking) girls.

"Sisters." Mindy stated cheerily, poking her head up above the counter to give them another toothy smile. "Sandy is the one to the right of me. She's the middle child of the family… don't tell her I told ya'll this but, she's a bit of a baby too!" Mindy said, but suddenly changed her expression as if she had said something terrible. Her eyes darted back and forth like she expected her sister to jump out from hiding and clobber her. "Oh garsh."

Teioh thought the blonde girl looked and acted kind of like a cartoon character. "Oh garsh" was the kind of thing some goofy cartoon dog would say on a Saturday morning special. Not an actual person.

"The one to my left, that's Cindy. She's the oldest. After our parents… well…"

The girls never-ending optimistic tone faded. It was a rare occasion.

"After our parents went to heaven, she made sure me and Sandy grew up right, you know?"

"Sorry…" Teioh said in a quiet voice. Almost instantly, the girls cheerful tone came back as she went back to work in the kitchen with a smile.

"Look, just tell us what you know about those mountains so we can be on our way." Cloud said.

"My, my Mr. Grumpy! Attitude like that won't get you nutthin but bread and water!"

"What do I have to say to get neither?"

She frowned at him, but at the same time was playfully smiling. She raised a hand, on which was one out-stretched finger, which she waved back and forth in front of her face.

Suddenly Cloud double over, grabbing his stomach. His face was only visible for a split second on the way down, but they all could see the pain in it. Teioh looked wide-eyed at Mindy for a moment, thinking she somehow cast a spell on him. When he was met with a confused wide-eyed looked of her own, he realized Cloud was having another spasm. Loeb was at his side. Teioh moved to his other side. Mindy began rushing towards them from behind the kitchen counter.

"No. Stay back." Teioh commanded, then gave a nod to Putter. Putter jumped to his feet, spun around, and grabbed the sprinting girl in his arms.

"It's OK ma'am."

"What's wrong? Was it something I said?" She cried, straining her neck around Putters wide frame to watch them.

Before anyone could answer, the front door slammed open - and before anyone could even react, a figure was leaping through the air, running across the round table, and diving onto Putter. Putter looked up from the floor in a daze to see a pretty girl… with a big knife coming down at him.

"Sandy, NO!" Mindy cried out. Just in time, Putter realized as his eyes crossed to focus on the lethally sharp tip of the blade hanging an inch from his face. He forced a weak laugh and smile.

"Get off him." Loeb said calmly from behind Sandy. He had both of his short swords resting dangerously close to either side of her throat.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Mindy began pleading, looking as if she was on the verge of breaking down.

Teioh was still tending to Cloud, but keeping a watchful eye on the entire situation. Cloud coughed a few times, and than returned to a normal position in the chair. His face was flushed and he looked sicker than ever, yet he was breathing normal again - and that was a good sign. Before him, he saw a woman on top of Putter with a knife to his throat, Loeb behind her with swords to hers, and the blond girl - Mindy - going crazy with panic in the kitchen.

"OK." He began calmly. "How about that bread and water now?"

---

--

---

The town of Nibelheim sat peacefully waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon, and meet the full moon and starry night with open arms. Every house was abandoned and completely dark except one. One was very much alive.

"You had no right, lady!" Loeb shouted over the table. Now a crew of six made the ever-shrinking table their home.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what I can do in MY home!?" The short-haired girl across from him (one of the six) barked back.

Mindy had described her in the picture as Sandy. Already it was apparent she was nothing like her cheery, bubbly younger sister. This girl had a sharp wit and a quick mouth. Her dark hair fell to only her chin, and her darker eyes coldly pierced out from behind the makeshift frame of it. She wore a tight black shirt and pants, capped with a pair of tough-looking leather gloves and a pair of mean, black boots. The knife which she had almost used to make a Putter-Sandwich, was strapped to her upper left arm. Another knife was harness to her inner right thigh. Teioh noted that she looked more like a rebel than the three _actual_ rebels at the table.

"You didn't have to almost kill him!"

"It's OK Loeb, I'm fine." Putter said in a small voice, not really wanting to get into the heated argument.

Cloud was washing down a bite of sandwich with a tall glass of wine - which he cautiously made the blond girl take a bite and drink of before he had any. Teioh sat back in his chair with his arms folded.

"I kill who I want when they're in my home." Sandy said with a cold tone. Her dark eyes practically shooting bullets into Loeb's. "In case you're stupid, that means you're eligible."

"Sandy they are my GUESTS!" Mindy cried out like a little kid trying to make her mommy listen to her.

"Mindy, what did me and Cindy tell you about outsiders!? Do you want everything we've worked for to go away?"

Teioh gave Cloud a thoughtful glance.

"…no." Mindy answered in a voice as tiny as she was. Then she suddenly perked back up and leaned forward in her chair. "But they were going to the mountains!"

No one spoke. The dark-haired girl, Sandy, stared at Mindy for a second before shooting those promiscuous-looking eyes at Cloud.

"You were?" She asked. She had apparently picked him out as the leader of their crew.

He nodded.

"Why?"

"Well-" Putter began.

"It doesn't concern you." Cloud finished.

"Oh, it does. You may not know it, but it does." She shot back sardonically.

No one liked the sound of that.

"What the hell does that mean?" Teioh asked, narrowing his eyes onto Sandy's. She met his look with a devilish half-grin and a wink.

Before he was even registering her wink, he felt his guns being slid out from under his vest, and before he could register _that_ he felt on of the nozzles being nudged into the back of his head. He sighed and put his hands up.

"I take it you're Cindy?" He said with a dry tone. "So happy to meet the whole family."

Behind him, a tall lady with brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail hovered above him. She held one of Teioh's guns to his head, the other she was cautiously dragging back and forth between the three other men. Loeb and Putter exchanged shocked looks in disbelief on how this woman managed to get the drop on them so easily. Where the hell did she come from?

Cloud didn't even bother glancing up from the food beneath him. He took another sip of wine, and Teioh's bulging eyes couldn't believe it. He didn't even seem to care!

"No one is going into those mountains. Not alive anyway." The woman commanded, her voice was soft, yet powerful. She was clearly the eldest sister, as the tiny lines of age had begun to show on her face, and the powerful commanding undertone in her voice only confirmed it. She must have had plenty of practice using it growing up with her two younger sisters.

Those two younger sisters were currently having two very different reactions. The young blonde, Mindy, was pulling at both sides of her hair in little tugging motions and biting her bottom lip repeatedly. Her eyes were wide with nervousness, and she had begun to softly cry to herself. Their middle sister Sandy, however, had leaned back in her chair, laced her fingers behind her head, and kicked her boots up on the table. Her devilish half-grin had upgraded to a whole one. Teioh gave her an angry glare, which she replied to by promptly sticking her tongue out at him.

"What the hell is up with you guys and those mountains!?" Loeb finally burst out, gesturing a clueless look with his arms and darting his eyes frantically between the three sisters. "I mean… what the HELL is up with those mountains!?"

Mindy looked like she was about to say something - instantly reverting to her cheerful demeanor - but a stern, sharp look from her oldest sister, and she quickly went tight-lipped.

"Smoke em', sis." Sandy said nonchalantly from her cocky position at the table. "Smoke em' before blabber-mouth tells em' something we don't want em' to hear."

"Be quiet! Both of you!" She said, shooting them both a paternal glare. Almost as if she _was_ their parent, they both listened. "Now… first off, what is your business in our home?" She nudged the nuzzle of Teioh's gun a little harder into his head. "You. Speak."

"Actually, we were _invited_ in." He said, angrily emphasizing the word "invited" and shooting a look at Mindy. She turned her head quickly. Her oldest sister looked at her.

"Mindy! Is this true?"

The blond let out a tiny sound that could have been "mm-hm" and shook her head. Her sisters eyes narrowed.

"Mindy…" She began in a strict voice.

"But they were going into the mountains!" She cried out. They had all heard the same desperate excuse only minutes before.

"Than you should have followed orders!"

_Orders?_ Teioh thought. Where these people working for Shinra? Or worse… the cult?

"What do you work for Shinra?" Putter asked, seeming to read Teioh's mind. In one second, Teioh was thankful he hadn't said it first.

The plate in front of Putter shot up into the air, two small pieces cracking off and going flying off into the room. The gunshot had made a terribly loud bang so near Teioh's ear, and he instantly cringed in pain. Putter sat there, narrow-eyed, staring at the bullet hole that had gone through the plate, and landed in the table - his mouth dropped open. Mindy had instantly retreated to the confines of the underside of the table, and even the middle sister looked a bit shaken up. For the first time, Cloud seemed to acknowledge the situation they were in by glancing up and looking around.

"Don't you _ever_ accuse me of working for those scum!" She cried out, a genuine hurtfulness coursed through her voice like a stream of pain, running through a forest of confusion. "EVER! You hear me? I-"

She suddenly stopped. Teioh looked around at his fellow table-mates to get their reactions, being as he couldn't see what she was doing himself. He glanced over and noticed Cloud staring up at the woman. Putter thought they looked like a pair of psychics, sharing a conversation telepathically.

"Cloud Strife." She said in awe. Her voice and face made it appear as if she had just stumbled upon an ancient treasure. In a way - she kind of did. He continued looking up at her, his face giving nothing away - a steady, poker-player stare. Teioh felt the nozzle that was pressing into the back of his skull ease up a bit. He realized if there was ever a moment to seize, this one was it - but opted to see how this situation would pan out instead.

It suddenly dawned on Teioh what was probably happening. If his age-assumptions were correct, the other two sisters wouldn't have ever even heard about Cloud unless it was legend. He figured the blond to be just a baby when Cloud was off saving the world, the middle sister not much older. But the elder sister - Cindy… if her voice was any indication to her age, she was probably a teenage girl at the time… just old enough to remember the hero of days gone by. Just old enough to remember the Cloud Strife that carried this planet on his back through its hardest times and lived to tell about it.

Now everyone watched the two of them stare at each other. Even Mindy, whose two intrigued eyes hovered just above the tabletop, the rest of her still safely hidden beneath.

"You saved my life." She whispered. Teioh felt the gun come off the back of head completely now. "You saved all of our lives."

Putter, suddenly stricken with new confidence and pride, arched his back to sit more straightly in his chair.

"That's right! That's Cloud Strife! Savior of the planet!"

"Yea!" Loeb added, catching Putters pride like a cold. "And we're on a very important mission!"

"You're _the_ Cloud?" Sandy asked, leaning forward in her chair and squinting her eyes at him. She looked like a paleontologist studying a freshly-discovered fossil. "Like, the one who stopped Sephiroth?"

"I had some help." He said, finally speaking. "A lot of it actually."

Now the brunette, Cindy, had moved to Cloud's side and knelt before him so they were on eye level. He watched her like some strange new animal whose behavior you couldn't predict. She cupped her hands around one of his.

"I don't mean that. I mean he saved _us_. He saved us _personally." _She began slowly nodding her head, never taking her thankful eyes off of Cloud's. "We owe this man our lives."

Mindy, who had crawled out from under the tables, was jumping up and down and clapping her hands. Her big, toothy grin was wider than ever. Sandy simply looked bored.

"I don't-" Cloud began.

"Remember?" Cindy finished. "That's alright. A man as brave and courageous as you can't possibly remember every foolish teenage girl he saves. But you did, Cloud. I was getting harassed by two Shinra soldiers in an alleyway and you came to my rescue. It had to be… many years ago. Perhaps more than twenty."

Cloud looked like he wanted to remember very badly, but alas he could not. He simply closed his mouth and shook his head.

"It was right after those bastards killed our parents." She continued, her voice growing weaker and sadder by the syllable. "They… they tried to finish the job." She wiped tears from her eyes. "They were going to do me in… and then my two younger sisters, who, at the time, were just babies."

Mindy and Sandy exchanged looks. One was bawling her eyes out already from the story, the other still looked bored, but now it was as plain as day that she was faking it. Underneath her dark eyes was a fireworks display of tears and emotion ready to be set off.

"And then… there you were." Cindy continued, her voice taking on a theatrical tone. She seemed to be telling the grandest tale in the history of the planet - and to her, maybe it probably was. "You just appeared. I can't even remember what you said, or what you did to them. Everything went by so fast. All I can remember is you taking my hand and pulling me to my feet."

Everyone listened.

"You asked me if I had somewhere to go. I said yes. I lied. And then you were gone… and now here you are." She said, if possible, looking deeper into his eyes.

"And here we are… thanks to you." Mindy said in a low voice, fighting to sneak the words out from behind tears and sniffles. Putter handed her a napkin from the table. She graciously took it and blew her nose. She had an awfully loud nose-blow for such a petite lady. Sandy rolled her eyes.

"Oh please! Spare me the waterworks. _Both_ of you." She said. "This doesn't change the fact that that mountain is off-limits."

The three rebels looked at the oldest sister, hoping to hear a contradiction. She looked around and noticed their hopeful faces, which seemed to sadden her even more.

"I'm sorry, but she's right."

All three sighed in unison.

"Why?" Loeb asked, beating the other two to it. Cindy got off her one-knee position and leaned up against the wall taking a deep breath.

"After Shinra had officially turned us into orphans, I knew I had to get my baby sisters and myself out of Midgar, or else Shinra would send someone else to finish the job." She began. "I took them to town of Kalm with nothing but a few measly hundred gil - our life savings. We stayed there for years, barely managing to scrape bye by taking odd jobs around town; Bartending, working at the Inn, running messages. But then after Meteor hit and Shinra came back to power a few years later, their influence began to spread out from Midgar like a black cloud. I couldn't live under their rule. Never again. I wouldn't allow it. I hated them, more than anything in the world. So we moved again."

"I hated all that moving." Mindy said sadly, reflecting on the times.

"We all did." Cindy said. "That's when we eventually found our way to this town. Nibelheim. That's when we met _them_."

"The cult." Loeb said in a low voice, almost as if he spoke any louder, some terrible thing would be raised from the dead. Cindy nodded.

"Yes. When we first saw them, I could barely register it as real in my mind. We had all heard stories, but passed them off as mere ghost tales. This wasn't a ghost tale. This was very real."

Mindy wrapped her arms around herself and stared off into the nothing. Sandy smirked at the sight.

"They were all dressed in black robes… we couldn't see their faces. Now, I'm almost glad we didn't. I didn't want to see the face of evil again. I already knew that as Shinra."

"There was so many…" Mindy said.

"Too many." Sandy added. "Too many for us to handle, that's for sure."

"Right." Cindy said, shaking her head. "Which is why we struck a deal with them in the first place."

Teioh frowned. He didn't need to hear the rest, he knew where it was going.

"They told us we could live here. In Nibelheim. One of the last remaining towns that the Shinra hadn't wrapped their iron grip around."

"On the condition that you didn't let anyone pass through to the mountains." Loeb said. Cindy shook her head.

"Which is why if you went there, we would lose everything. Our home. Our Freedom… maybe even our lives."

All seven of them, packed tightly in the small confines of the two-room downstairs, sat in silent for a moment.

"We're going to the mountain." Cloud said, his voice cutting through the silence with a sturdy definitiveness. Cindy looked at him wide-eyed, looking as if she thought he hadn't even heard what she just said.

"You can't!" Mindy cried out, staring at Cloud. Cloud didn't so much as give her a glance. She turned to Putter and cupped his hand in hers. "Please!" She pleaded.

"Maybe you _couldn't_ stop us." Teioh began. They all turned to him. "Maybe we came by and you _did_ try to stop us. Only we beat you and moved on anyway."

"Yea!" Loeb exclaimed, nodding his approval of the plan. "That story would work."

"I'm afraid it wouldn't." Cindy said, eyes staring down at her hands that laid on the tabletop. "They didn't leave us here to guard their precious mountain without… _testing_ us first."

"Testing?" Teioh questioned.

"Our instructions were to defend the mountain… to the death." Sandy said, eyes floating around the four men at the table. "Which means, if you got through - either you'd be dead… or we would."

"We can fight… and they know it." Mindy added.

"But so can we." Loeb said, leaning forward in his chair. "Maybe we ransacked this place, knocked you guys out, and left."

"That would still be failure in their eyes, and the price would be our lives." Cindy said.

There was no way out of the situation they were in. All four men were slowly coming to realize that. Except one.

"We're going to the mountain." Cloud repeated. "You're lives may change afterwards, but I promise you they won't be taken."

"I won't live under Shinra rule again." Cindy stated. "You have to understand that."

"And you won't." Teioh said, suddenly realizing an answer. "There's a rebellion now. Things are changing all across this planet. The people aren't taking the Shinras crap lying down anymore! We have places set up all over!"

"Yea!" Putter exclaimed, realizing Teioh's plan was perfect. "And if you joined us, you could actually do something to Shinra instead of hide from them!"

"Make them pay for what they did." Loeb added.

Sandy and Cindy were staring at each other. They both looked unsure of the whole thing, but they _were_ thinking - and that was a good thing in Teioh's mind. Mindy, on the other hand, was ecstatic. She had one arm wrapped around Putters wide neck, her hands meeting in front of his face in a praying gesture. Hey eyes darted back and forth between her sisters like a dog waiting for his owner to throw a stick.

"I mean… maybe." Cindy said, shaking her head. Sandy smiled.

The three rebels also exchanged looks. Happy looks. Maybe they were going to get through this god-forsaken town after all.

That's when everything went bad.

Outside, a glass-shattering noise came racing down from the mountains like a flood ripping through a canyon. All seven of them grabbed at their ears. The sound was strange. It was loud and constant, but its pitch seemed to dip and contort into weird patterns. It wasn't exactly musical, it was just… strange.

After what seemed like an eternity, the noise finally gave up - and even Cloud had to shake his head to try get the ringing residue left behind out. Teioh stretched his jaw and widened his eyes. He didn't understand how the noise had been so loud, even inside the house. He looked around to make sure everyone was OK. They were - save for the three sisters of Nibelheim, who were all staring off into nothing with eyes that had turned to cold, silver slivers in their head.

---

--

---

--

---

Herm had dropped off his four passengers at the face of Mt. Nibel a few hours ago, and was now enjoying a nice, relaxing beverage in a tiny, cozy little bar in Cosmo Canyon. He smiled a deep, satisfying smile as he laid back in his chair at the corner of the room. It was a dim room, and that combined with the easy-going music that played low and smooth over the speakers set up throughout, made it the perfect place for him to wait for his friends to give him a call.

He leaned over his drink and sipped it up through the straw that had been placed inside. He got a nice mouthful before taking his lips off it and letting out a relaxed "Aw". A handful of shadows fell down onto the table before him, turning the tabletop into almost a portrait of Mt. Nibel. He chuckled at the thought and looked up.

Rex Arinthone stood in front of three Shinra soldiers grinning. Herm made a move, but a soldier raised a gun and aimed the crosshairs at his hand.

"Please, finish your drink." Rex began, still smiling. "We have some talking to do."

---


	14. Goodbye Again Old Man

Three sisters, three rebels, and a dying man sat around a big, round, wooden table. The rebels were exchanging confused looks. The sisters were the source of the confusion - ever since the very audible, very peculiar sounding alarm had blasted its way down the mountains and into the cozy, little home of theirs, they had simply stared off into nothing with their heads slightly tilted. Their pupils had seem to shrink, and now they also seemed to glow a soft silverish color. Putter raised his hand and waived it a few times in front of Mindy's face. She gave no sign of acknowledgment whatsoever. The last man at the table, the dying one, stood up and pushed his chair in behind him.

"I think," He began, shooting a look at each of his three rebel companions. "It's time for us to leave."

"I think you might be right." Loeb agreed nervously eyeing down the sisters. Without any more spoken agreements, they all proceeded to politely push their chairs in - and get the HELL out of there. Cloud opened the front door - night had settled in outside now - and stepped out. Teioh was right behind him, but as his leg was crossing the threshold, he felt arms around his waist. Before he had a chance to let out a confused "What the hell?", he was flying through the air. Not flying in the sense that he had spread his wings and was gracefully gliding through the wind - more in the sense that he had been flung, and hard, by someone, and was now clumsily sailing toward a head-on collision with the wall at the opposite end of the room.

Luckily for him, Putter managed to step in the way of his unfortunate target and instead of getting a busted head, he tumbled on top of the pudgy man, sending them both plummeting to the ground. They hit and rolled backwards a bit, crashing into the kitchen counter that separated the kitchen from the dining/living room. Loud noises of pots and pans being shaken and dropped came next. When they both managed to get to their feet - after fighting with each other to get untangled - they saw Teioh's flinger standing in front of the, now-closed, door with her arms on her hips.

Cindy grinned evilly at them.

Teioh stared at her in surprise, before fast motion to his left caught his attention. He glanced over to see Loeb and the middle sister, Sandy, engaged in a sort of wrestling match. Each had one anothers arms gripped tightly, and were locked in a battle of strength which, surprisingly, seemed to be dead even. Teioh looked back at the oldest sister, who hadn't budged, then over at Putter.

Putter looked just as confused as he was, giving him a shrug and a clueless arm gesture.

CLANG.

Putter's eyes went crisscrossed, and then he dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, landing with a loud bang. Teioh looked down at him, then behind where he was standing - only to see the youngest of the three sisters, Mindy, holding a giant frying pan and grinning that toothy grin of hers (which was now much more terrifying than cute). Before, Teioh had thought the girl reminded him of a cartoon, now she had just about confirmed his suspicions. Who hit people with frying pans? Cartoons, that's who.

If this girl was a cartoon character, right now she looked like one that would be at the welcoming wagon to hell. Her eyes, silver slivers, shone with pure joy as she began pacing towards Teioh, still wearing that goofy smile. He began backing up. She traced his movements, only in forward gear. She began giggling as she stepped over his fallen comrades unconscious body. Putter stirred a bit as she did. Teioh knew he would have to make a move against her soon, or she was going to lead him back-first into the wrestling match that was going on behind him.

Turns on he didn't have to.

Putter, still not all together, had enough mindset to grab the girls ankle, which cause her to look back down at him, which in turn gave Teioh the open shot he was looking for. He began to move towards the distracted cartoon-like chick, but felt something hard hit his stomach. It knocked the wind out of him and made him double up. He let out a deep cough as he closed his eyes in pain and fell to his knees. Just as he did though, the source of the pain (which had been a hard right uppercut to his gut) grabbed him by his hair and wrenched his head back. His eyes met Cindy's, who hovered above him with that same smirk from before. She thrust an elbow down at him, which seemed to fit snuggly into his right eye socket as it struck. He immediately fell backwards holding his eye, landing on his back on the floor. Before he had time to even asses the injury, he felt the tip of an iron-toed boot being launched into his stomach. He coughed again, this time there was probably some blood mixed in with it.

On the left side of the room, Loeb had managed to out-strength his competition, pinning her arms to the wall behind her. She struggled furiously, but he had his weight pushing up against her now. He was just about ready to ask her what the hell their problems were when she chucked her head at his at break-neck speed. He felt his nose crack, and almost instantly his eyes were watering and he was stumbling backwards. Stumbling backwards right into Cindy, who grabbed him by the neck and flung him onto the dining table, landing on it and tipping the whole thing over on its side.

Just as the table flipped, Mindy had launched herself onto Putters back - who had just now risen to his feet. The tiny lady wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs around his stomach - crossing her feet in front and squeezing tightly. He put his head back and cringed in pain, but as he did that the blond sunk her teeth into his shoulder. He cried out in pain before using all his strength to fling her over the front of his shoulder. She went sailing into her oldest sister, causing her to stumble backwards while catching the blond in her arms.

Teioh, who had managed some recuperation time with Cindy going after Loeb, got to his feet and took advantage of the situation. He sent a kick hard into Mindy's back, which in turn sent Cindy (who was holding her) falling onto her ass with her sisters body on top of her. Before he could follow up the attack, Sandy had jumped over her two fallen siblings and was throwing punches and kicks at Teioh as rapidly as he had ever seen. He blocked on kick with the outside of his forearm. Another with his own leg. A three-piece punching combo came exploding at him, which he skillfully blocked with a defensive stance and some well-placed slaps. Sandy, obviously becoming frustrated, reached for a nearby pot and quickly swung it at Teioh's face all in one smooth motion. Teioh felt it graze his nose as he jolted his head back, barely in the nick of time. Just as he did that, though, she used the opportunity to land a strong, sideways kick into his gut - sending him crashing backwards much like he had just did to the other two sisters.

The other two sisters were back on their feet now, and joined their middle sibling in attack-ready positions.

Teioh and Putter exchanged tired, dreadful looks. They couldn't win this fight - the girls didn't even seem to be getting worn out, let alone hurt. Watching their third companion, Loeb, slowly crawl to his feet with the aid of the tipped table only confirmed what bad shape they were in.

Loeb stumbled over to his fellow rebels, and the lines were drawn. In the red corner; Team Rebel. In the blue corner; Team Crazy-Sisters. If there was a referee, Teioh thought he would have already called it a no contest in favor of the blue corner. But he knew they had to try. He looked back and forth between his two team mates and nodded his head, trying to fill them with some confidence. He was met with two unsure pairs of eyes - which was how he felt himself.

The sisters began stalking toward them. Almost to accentuate how dangerous they were, a loud crack of thunder came barreling in from outside, shaking up anything in the room small enough to be shook. That included Teioh's confidence.

Suddenly, Cindy - who was leading the crazed trio - stopped and gestured for the others to as well with a raise of her hand. She smirked something wicked. None of the three rebels liked it. They watched her as she seemed to be on the verge of busting out in laughter as she walked over to the fallen dining table, where she stopped and shot a look at them that made their skin crawl. They watched as her left hand slowly raised up to the light that was hanging over the remains of the table and wrapped its fingers around the knob. She shot them one last, skin-crawling, stomach-turning smile.

And then they were in darkness. Complete and total darkness. That is, except for the three pairs of silver slivers that now floated without bodies across from them. Teioh instantly realized they could probably see in the dark and what little confidence he had left, shrunk down to the size of a peanut before disappearing completely.

---

--

---

Cloud stepped outside into the cold night air, that had begun to be littered with tiny drops of rain. Instantly he knew there would be a full fledged storm on it's way… it was just something in the air. He turned back - only to see the door slammed hard in his face. He instantly wrapped his hands around the knob and tried opening it, but it had been locked. He took a step back and gave it a hard kick - no dice. Another - same result. He placed the palms of his hand on the door and listened as a commotion began inside. No, not a commotion. A fight. He rapidly twisted the knob of the door again before turning to his side and ramming it with his shoulder. It hurt. Everything hurt in his condition, but this _really_ hurt.

_God damn._

He moved over to the one, sole window at the front of the house and tried peering in. All he saw was a metal slab of something, and a handful of rain drops racing down the glass. He had wondered why it'd been so dark inside, even in the daylight. Now he knew, and he felt like a fool for not picking it up sooner.

He wasn't sure if this was Shinra, the cult, or just some chicks doing, but he knew it was bad. They had to get to those mountains, and they had to get their fast. Tifa - no, Tifa _and_ Marlene were counting on them. Maybe with their lives. They didn't have time to shit around with these people. He began to run his hands around the windows edges, hoping for a way to pop out the frame and maybe get a better look at the structure of metal inside, when he smelt it.

New and sharp, but somehow at the same time it lingered with a musty, old stench that usually only accompanied expired foods, or the rotting dead. Cheap; that was definite. Probably bought off some street-peddler in the higher class section of Midgar. Probably got told he was getting a bargain. A "Real Steal". Probably used it to cover up the true smell of him.

Pipe-swinger, in all his cheap-smelling-cologne glory. He turned around and his eyes confirmed what his mind already knew. There out in the drizzling rain and the dark blanket of the night sky stood the devil himself - a brand-new pipe at the end of one arm (Cloud had hacked the other pipe in two), and a tightly clenched fist at the end of another. His big, oversized head held a soaked mop of hair on top of it. Cloud knew it was rain, but imagined it more as sweat. Probably didn't take much to make this guy sweat buckets - he was, after all, a giant compared to regular people.

He was slowly walking toward Cloud like some lumbering monster out of a childrens story. Cloud let out a long breath and stared at the ground for a moment. He prayed his condition didn't kick up while this was going on. The last time he had encountered the pipe-swinger, he got lucky. He tricked the big goof into a clumsy move - out here in the wide-open circle of Nibelheims center, it wouldn't be that easy. He would have to out skill his opponent, not just out think.

If there was a tremor of a spasm in his body, he wished it would come out now. But it did not, and his time was running down. The man was only a few yards away from him.

He spit. A trick he picked up from Loeb, who had told him spitting helped him relax. Kind of like he was spitting out all his worries before a fight, or spitting out the bad taste of a worse situation. Cloud didn't know if it would work, but he had to try. He had to hope. He spit - and then he moved.

The pipe-swinger stopped and planted his feet at the sight of the oncoming old man - who charged at him with the ferocious intensity of a much younger one. Cloud pulled his sword out of it's sheath behind his back as he ran, yanking it out and leaping up all at the same time. He came down with the sword in a ready-to-cut position. The pipe-swinger, learning his lesson from last time - did not block the sword with a bunt-positioned pipe. Instead, he cocked it back and swung it as hard as he could, smashing into the side of the sword and steering all Clouds momentum to the left. Cloud stumbled on his feet, came to a slow stop and spun around. The pipe swinger was charging him. He prepared for a defensive counter, but his concentration was broken by an ear-deafening crack of thunder that seemed only inches away from his head. It was actually just outside town, but when you're that close - it didn't matter.

The pipe-swinger swung, and landed a blow to the side of Cloud's head. The crack of the thunder in his ear was nothing compared to the crack of the pipe into the side of his skull. He felt his whole head spin on the way to the ground. Landing on his side, his face fell into a small pool of mud that had formed from the rain. He coughed, sending a ripple through the puddles surface.

If this was Cloud from twenty years ago - hell, if it was Cloud from maybe only a few days ago - he would have been on his feet in seconds. But that Cloud had passed, so to speak, and the old man with a fatal disease couldn't help but lie there for a bit, recovering from the blow.

He placed his hands underneath his chest and had to struggle to raise himself up. His whole body pulsed in pain, even though he had only taken one blow. When his arms had fully extended, and he was ready to get to his feet, he felt the pipe-swingers boot crash into his back, sending him face-first back into the puddle beneath him. Water exploded from beneath his head as he got a mouth and nose full of muddy water.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" Pipe-swinger said cockily, hovering above him. He put his hands underneath himself again and tried pushing himself up. This time the pipe-swinger swung his foot into Cloud's side, flipping him onto his side on the ground. He let out a cough that he wasn't sure was from the kick, or the muddy water that still seemed to be floating around in his throat. "Get up." The pipe-swinger commanded. Cloud lifted himself again. Again, the man kicked him, hard enough to flip him onto his back this time.

Cloud stared up at the sky. Tiny drops of rain dotted his face as he took deep breaths. It was at that moment he realized he could not win this fight. Not in his condition. He closed his eyes and grimaced. The pipe-swingers blows hurt him. Hurt him badly. But admitting he couldn't win… that was a pain that ran much deeper than any blow he could receive. The worst part was, he knew if he died here - if he kicked the bucket on the ground of his hometown - that Tifa would inevitably suffer the same fate.

_Son of a bitch._

_---_

_--_

_--- _

Teioh, Loeb and Putter stood beside each other in the blackness of the house. Six silver slivers floated closer and closer towards them.

"What the hell do we do man?" Putter asked nervously. His eyes darted back and forth between the black faces that were just barely visible from the glow of their eyes.

"Relax." Teioh said, but it didn't sound very convincing. He thought about making a move for the light or, perhaps, the door. Neither seemed reasonable due to the fact that he couldn't see where they were, and the sisters _could_ see _him_.

Suddenly, the eyes (or at least what seemed like eyes) came floating at them quickly. All three rebels tried to defend themselves, but it was no use. They were all wiped out in a matter of seconds - hard blows landing in their bodies, faces, and everywhere in between.

Teioh lay on the floor as the darkness, the _real_ darkness, swelled in his head to the size of an ocean - an ocean that he was about to drown in, and he knew his friends weren't far behind. He slipped into unconsciousness.

---

--

---

The pipe-swinger began circling Cloud's beaten and bruised body on the ground, wearing a sadistic grin as he did. Cloud began to turn onto his side to get back up again, but was once more met with a hard kick into his abdomen. The kick struck him like a stone thrown in a puddle - the pain seemed to spread out from the point of impact. His whole body screamed at him. He fell over and coughed a deep, sickly-sounding cough. He felt his shoulder scrape across the dirt and rocks that made up the ground of Nibelheims town center. He felt his throat begin to dry, almost as if he was getting a cold. He felt his ear strike a particularly point rock that must have been in the perfect spot to get him. He felt it bleed. He felt his hands stiffen like they were struck with a sudden case of instant arthritis. He felt his breaths become sharper, and closer together. Most of all though, he felt the cold chill of Death's air on the back of his neck.

Looking into the sky, he wasn't sure if he was hallucinating. Was that a vulture? Some godless SOB who happened to pick the perfect spot on the perfect day, and was about to find himself one perfectly dead Cloud. No. He squinted into the dreary night sky. A rain drop fell into his eye. He blinked it away, and then he was sure of what he saw. It wasn't a vulture, but a giant, winged, monster. He shook his head and opened his eyes a little wider. It was circling his position - or maybe he was just imaging that - just above the rooftops of the Nibelheim homes. The set sun still gave off just enough light to make out its figure. Which was, in one word, terrifying. A faceless mass in the stormy sky.

Cloud laughed to himself. Maybe that was what everyone saw before they died. Maybe _that_ was Death. Or maybe, Death was a manifestation of your lives deeds. Maybe it was a reflection on the storybook of your entire time on the planet. Maybe once, twenty years ago or so, it would have been an angel up there, waiting to take him away. Certainly not now. Certainly not after he'd turned his back on an entire planet full of needful people. That's why he laughed to himself. He found it funny. He had to.

The pipe-swinger grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked him to his knees. He didn't even put up a struggle. Next, he felt his face being smashed in by the pipe-swingers knee - which sent him crumbling to the muddy ground like his soul had just been ripped out of him.

He coughed again. Definitely blood in it this time. The piper swinger strolled over to him and hovered above him with his hands on his hips. Cloud was looking up, but not at him. He still watched the menacing bird-creature in the sky, who had seemed to slow down in preparation to watch the kill. The pipe-swinger bent over and yanked Cloud's sword out of his stiff fingers. Two seconds or so after it was already gone, his fingers closed around an invisible handle, searching for their life-long friend. The pipe-swinger examined the sword. He looked it up and down. He smelt it. He played with it.

Cloud watched, and for a moment, he felt like his best friend had betrayed him. He hated how the sword instantly took to a new master so quickly. How it allowed itself to be wielded by such a piece of shit. His empty hand gripped around the invisible handle a little tighter, almost into a clenched fist. He wanted it back.

The pipe-swinger held it up and pointed to it, teasing him. "This?", his expression cold-heartedly asked. Cloud felt his arm moving up to take the sword all on its own. It moved slowly… weakly… shakily. The pipe-swinger laughed at this heartily. He held the sword, handle out first, down towards Cloud. When it was just within his reach the man quickly jerked it away and watched Cloud's arm swing and fall to the mud below. It landed with a soft plop - at which the pipe-swinger laughed again. Cloud coughed. The man held it out again. This time, Cloud was going to try to make a quick swipe at it with his other hand. Catch the bastard off guard. He waited for the perfect moment as the man slowly inched it closer and closer to him. When the perfect moment arose, it was quickly taken away.

His left arm stiffened in pain. A muscle spasm. A god damned muscle spasm, now of all times. He grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand and arched his back. These things were getting worse. Getting more painful. _This_ one seemed to be tearing his arm right of its socket. Cloud once again found humor. One last reminder of the loser he really was. Nothing more than a confused, old, idiot, who was unlucky enough to get experimented on when he was a confused, young, idiot. And now, decades later, he would pay the price. He would pay the price for everything, and everyone.

The pipe-swinger frowned down at him. He shrugged and raised the sword.

Cloud looked up at it, but he wasn't really watching at all. He watched the creature in the sky, who suddenly took on a familiar look.

The pipe-swinger thrust the sword downwards.

The creature wasn't a creature. It was a girl. An innocent girl with big, beautiful eyes and a bigger, more beautiful smile. She held a flower in her hand.

_"Cloud?"_

The voice. Even as death was hurdling at him faster than a bullet, he still found the beauty in that voice.

The pipe-swinger, in a big surge of power, pierced Cloud's own sword into his stomach.

He searched for a breath, but it didn't come. He tried to blink, but his eyes didn't work anymore. He wanted to cry, but the best he would get was the trickle of rain down the side of his face. His mouth hung open, still searching for a breath, a word, _anything_.

_"Cloud?"_

_Yea… I'm coming._

And then, in his head, a miracle happened. Time began to reverse. He looked down at his hands and watched as his disease finally gave up on him. He was doing it! He was getting better -and fast. His face lit up with pure awe and joy as the last of the disease passed. His trembling fingers found their way to his face. Smooth. He was young again. Not young as in his twenties, but his true age. His _real_ age, and that was a hell of a lot better than the Sixty-something he had felt and looked before. He ran his hands through his hair. It wasn't stiff and straw-like anymore. It felt like… hair again. He tested his muscles and joints. They worked to perfection. He was better.

He felt his emotion swell like the grandest moment of a sympathy. It burst through, filling his eyes with tears. He was OK. He was going to be OK.

But then he kept feeling time reverse. He watched as the twenty years of his life he'd spent alone were washed away like dirt on a windshield. They played out in front of him like some boring old movie he'd seen a thousand times. And then suddenly, he was back. Back with everyone he knew. Everyone he cared about. He was fighting for the planet - getting rid of all the scum that inhabited it. He was a hero again.

Barret. Yuffie. Cid. Vincent. Red XIII. Cait Sith. He looked at them all like he had found a piece of his heart that'd been missing for a very long time.

Then he felt something strange in his chest. It was love. He looked at Tifa. He _did_ love her. It took him all this time, but he finally realized it. He _did._ He couldn't believe what a fool he'd been. And now that he finally knew the truth, there was nothing he could do about it. He ran to her but this show didn't slow down for no one.

He watched as that time passed like seconds on a clock, and he suddenly was a teenager. A lowly foot soldier in Shinras army. A nothing again. He didn't like that. He didn't like that way it made him feel. He wanted to be back - back in love. Back where he was happy.

Almost an answer to his prayers, he was back with Tifa. But now, they were just kids in Nibelheim. Foolish kids who didn't have a clue that their lives would become so important to the planet. He saw her and wanted to run to her. Not to hold her, but to warn her - warn her not to get caught up with this Cloud guy. He's no good… he'll only break your heart later on when you need him the most.

But as he ran to her, he grew younger - and she, more distant. He was suddenly a boy again. A boy sitting at home in his bed. His mom making something in the kitchen. He looked over at her. She smiled at him and opened her arms.

He went to her, but by the time he reached her, he was a baby again and she was cradling him in her arms. He looked up at her, but she wasn't his mom anymore. He was staring up at the flower girl he would see in the sky many years later. But then again, he knew he wouldn't see anyone in the sky. Because he was a just a baby, and he knew that everything he'd seen was just a silly dream.

A silly, babies dream.

Time kept pushing back. And then it pushed back so far - it was as if he'd never been born at all.

_Just a dream._

_--- _

Outside Cloud's head, an old man simply lied motionless in a puddle of mud.

---


	15. Inside the Mountain

When Teioh awoke from his unconsciousness, for a moment he thought he was still in the sisters home in Nibelheim. It was very dark, and _very _cold. He let out a long groan and got off the freezing floor into a sitting position - immediately wrapping his arms around his body for a bit more warmth. He blinked a few times and realized he was, in fact, _not_ in the sisters home. He was in something that resembled more of a cave. A cave with no way out but a single, wooden door. He stood up, but as he did, his whole head seemed to spin. He quickly sat back down and winced, rubbing the side of his head with his hand. Even taking his arm away from his body for a second seemed to be an open invitation for the cold to wrap its icy blanket around him. What the hell happened? He thought about that for a moment. He remembered the sisters, he remembered their sinister-looking eyes floating in a sea of black, but he couldn't remember for the life of him what had happened after that. Putter… Loeb… he hoped they were OK, but it was a foolish hope. He knew that they were almost definitely in the same situation he was, locked up in some freezing, dark room. He wished they had been caught by Shinra, but once again it was a foolish wish. Shinra wouldn't have thrown him in a place like this. No. This was the work of the cultist.

He felt for his guns, but of course, they were gone. He cursed and stood up. This time, no head-spinning thankfully. He walked the distance of the small rooms length to the door. He jingled the handle of the windowless structure to no avail. He sighed and let his head fall up against it.

"A prisoner again, Teioh." He said to himself, closing his eyes. "A prisoner again…"

And he stayed a prisoner for, what seemed like, days. Once a day a meal would be shoved in through the compartment near the bottom of the door. It looked like crap and tasted worse, but he ate it anyway. The days, if he could even call them that having no sense of time, seemed to drag on forever - the nights, even longer than that. Sleep didn't come easy, although the darkness and quietness practically screamed "Go to Sleep!". How could he sleep in this place? Maybe he could have if he didn't have so many damn questions coursing through his head like children at a playground. His thoughts climbed the knotted rope, swung past the monkey bars, went down the big slide, and ran right back to the knotted rope. What were they planning on doing with him? What have they already _done_ to Marlene? Where were Putter and Loeb? Where was Tifa? And most importantly, what the _hell_ happened to Cloud?

Those were the thoughts that kept him up throughout the "nights", as he called them, but who was he fooling? Every dark hour in the place was night. A cold, relentless, sleepless night.

After many of these "nights" passed, the door finally opened.

When it did, he was almost too shocked to react. Hours and hours of repetition and you start taking every slightest change as a Christmas present - from as subtle a thing as your stomach growling, up to the cracking sound of the door you thought would never open.

After a moments shocked hesitation, he jumped to his feet and prepared. Prepared for a friend, prepared for a foe - prepared for whatever the hell might come strolling through that door. His breathing picked up pace as his eyes narrowed onto the opening door. He saw who was behind it, and became even more shocked than before. This time, however, he was shocked with joy.

"Marlene." He said, meaning to shout it but actually having it come out as a whisper. She stood in the doorway staring at him. "Marlene!" He repeated, this time it came out as originally intended. He ran to her, the thought of holding her in his arms making his heart beat in triplets.

He got to her - and was met with a fierce elbow, thrust into the side of his head. His ears wrung as he stumbled backwards, falling onto the cold ground.

"Marlene?" He said once more as he sat up, rubbing his head. "What the hell-

But then the door was slammed shut again. He screamed her name again as he ran to it and tried pulling it open. No good as the locks clicked into place just before he did. It suddenly sunk in like a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. They had gotten to her. They had twisted her mind around, just like the stories he had heard when he was a teenager. The stories about how they could take a regular person and do things to their mind… evil things that made them stop thinking right. Start thinking… like a zombie almost.

His spirits were crushed. He almost wanted to cry. The one person he knew and trusted more than anyone else on the planet had fallen victim to the cults tricks. He let his head fall against the front of the door again.

This time, however, something on the floor caught his eye.

A small, white tube laying on the ground like a bright sailboat amidst the sea of darkness. He reached down and scooped it up. Upon examining it, he found it was not actually a white tube, but a black flashlight - wrapped in a white piece of paper.

He let his fingers work it, unwinding the paper and letting the flashlight roll into his open palm. He wasn't quiet sure what the hell to expect, but was as excited as ever all the same. This was something different, and different was good.

In a few breaths, the paper was stretched out before his eyes in his left hand, while the right found the switch on the flashlight and clicked it on. A beam of light cut a line in the darkness of the room, and was quickly directed onto the paper.

He narrowed his eyes and read.

_Teioh,_

_I have to do this through this letter, because I can't come speak to you just yet. They hear things… they hear everything. I'm OK though. They thought they could break me, but they couldn't Teioh. They couldn't do it. They think they did, but I promise you I am fine. They did horrible things Teioh… things I won't write about now. Things I won't make your ears hear until we're both far away from this damned black hole in the planet. I promise you I'm going to get us out of here. Loeb and Putter too. I heard they took all three of you in. They think I'm one of them. I've got them fooled good. Tonight, we're getting out of here. I didn't think I could make it by myself, but I know we can all do it together. Teioh, tomorrow they are going to try and change you, like they tried to do to me. Like they _did_ to Tifa. Oh god, it's so sad. They've messed up her mind bad. But I can't leave her Teioh. I can't. I won't. We will have to get her out of her too, even if it means kidnapping her from these twisted freaks. She thinks she's one of them, but I know in my heart we can make her realize the truth. And tomorrow, they're going to try to change you. That's why tonight we have to take action, have to get the hell out of here. I will be by in a few hours. Be ready to run. And to fight._

_Marlene_

Teioh folded the piece of paper and stuck in the breast pocket of his vest before running his hand through his hair and taking a deep breath. Marlene was safe - thank god - and now all he had to do was get them both as far away from this place as possible.

He clicked off the flashlight, thinking it was probably better to save the battery in case they needed it later. He let the notes words wash over him like a cold shower. Tonight they would escape. Tonight they might have to fight. Tonight… they might have to fight _Tifa_…

---

--

---

Teioh was right - Putter and Loeb _were_ in the same situation he was. They had both been tossed in equally dark rooms that were equally cold, and equally creepy. They had both been served five meals of slop that contained probably the bare necessities of survival. The only difference was, neither was visited by Marlene on the fifth "day". Instead, both of their doors had been opened by tall men in black robes whose faces hid in the shadows of their hoods - making them appear like faceless demons. They had both been signaled to come forth, and then had their hands bound behind their backs. They were marched outside of their rooms and into a long, circular hallway that looked like it was barely a step above a simple tunnel dug through the mountain.

The two met up - each with their own guard behind them.

"Hey buddy, long time no see." Loeb said as his footsteps fell in line with his pudgy friends.

"Yea." Putter replied, relieved to be reunited with his pal. "You're guy talk?"

"Nope. Yours?"

"Oh, he won't shut up." Putter said sarcastically, tossing a glance over his shoulder - to which the response was a quick shove into his lower back. "Alright, alright."

"You got any idea where they're taking us?" Loeb questioned, his eyes watched an oncoming light that had been fixed into the side of the hall pass by him.

"Gold Saucer?"

"Ha-ha, yea… maybe." Loeb laughed.

But after that, neither of them spoke again until they stopped. Putters joke had, at first, been amusing, but it quickly set in to them both that they might never see the Gold Saucer again.

When they finally _did _stop (after what seemed like a mile walk through the winding hall), they were both surprised to see three _more_ prisoners - each with their own robed guard - waiting for them with their hands bound in similar fashion.

"The sisters?" Putter asked confused. "Weren't _they_ the ones who captured _us_?"

Loeb shook his head. He didn't have an answer. The only ones who would have an answer were the sisters, but - judging by their blank faces and silver eyes - they wouldn't be exactly "talking it up" any time soon.

"They're still changed." He noted, more to himself than anything but Putter nodded in agreement regardless.

"Yea… they're still… weird." He added as they were both jerked to a halt only a few feet from their now-fellow-prisoners.

Soon enough, all five of them were being led deeper and deeper down the hall like a gang of bandits being sent to the shooting line for some terrible crime. Loeb hoped there wasn't any truth to that thought, but who was he kidding? From what he had heard of these people, nothing sinister was to be ruled out.

The hall/tunnel wound and wound forward like a piece of dirty coiled roped. Loeb noticed that they seemed to be slowly descending, as if the hall was spiraling down like a drill. He wondered how long it had taken to make such a path… how many grueling hours of labor these people endured carving their way through these mountains. The sisters didn't seem to be thinking of that. They didn't seem to be thinking anything, actually. Just following the hall like mindless drones on a set course. The thought of him and Putter being brainwashed into a similar state frightened him, and every step they took, something ugly and disgusting seemed to grow larger and larger in the pit of his stomach.

After seemingly an hour long hike (which was actually more like twenty minutes) the two guards in front of the pack stopped in front of a small door at the right side of the hall. Loeb came to a halt and glanced over his shoulder at the three robed guards behind them. They stood silent and motionless - like a group of gothic statues - waiting.

The door opened, and all five prisoners were led inside by a robed guard. The other four stayed in the hall.

Inside the door was a large, circular room. Lights dotted alongside the curved walls, and one single light hung from the center. _In _the center was a man at a raised podium. This man, however, wore a white robe. A surprisingly spotlessly clean white robe. Given the habitat of the place, Loeb was a bit shocked. The mans hood was up, like the others, hanging slightly over his face. Loeb took note of the mans podium, or more specifically, the contents atop the podium. A glass of some dark red liquid (blood was a possibility, being you couldn't rule out anything sinister with these people), a small wooden box, a long scroll of paper, a clay ash tray, and a smoking pipe with a pouch and lighter beside it. It was a regular office desk, Loeb joked to himself. The guard that had led them inside, halted them just before the podium before walking around to the back of it and leaning in to whisper something to the white-robed man.

"Ah yes." He said after listening to the other and nodding his head. "These are them."

_These are them?_ Loeb thought. This whole experience had been surreal, and the mans strange phrasing only added to the belief he was living out some sort of live-action play.

"I regret to inform you all," The white-robed man began. "That it's been decided your lives on this planet are of no use anymore."

Loeb shot Putter a look. Putter was shooting him the same one. Shock and fear.

"What!?" Loeb spit - his mind drifting to his previous thought of being led to a firing line. "What the hell does that mean!?"

"Your deaths will not be in vain. I promise you that. Take peace in the fact that your lives will serve a higher purpose."

Putter searched for words, but not came. Loeb was slowly shaking his head. The sisters stared blankly and motionless at the wall at the back of the room.

"I ask you to do this - for your souls in the afterlife. Accept our lord into your hearts. Accept him and he will treat you well in the next world."

"What!?" Putter finally found a word.

"Accept him. Accept him into your hearts. Accept him into your minds. Accept Sephiroth."

As soon as Loeb heard the name, he knew arguing was not an option. Not anymore. Anyone who believed Sephiroth was a god was so far off the deep end, rationality wasn't even possible. Putter must have been thinking the same thing, because he stood silently with a cold fire burning in his eyes as well.

At that point, the man in the white robe began chanting. His voice, which had been quiet and steady, suddenly erupted into a very audible singing voice. He waved his arms in rhythm with whatever creepy hymn he was chanting. The black-robed guard seemed to be enticed with the man and his stupid song.

Loeb saw opportunity when it laid itself out, legs spread wide, in front of him. He jolted so quick from his standing position to a full-fledged run, Putter felt a gust of air slap his face. In seconds he dove forward, crashing into the podium - which flung back and to the right, giving him a clear path at the white-robed man. He tackled him with his shoulder like a football player, sending them both hurdling down at the floor behind them. The mans singing came to an abrupt end, and was replaced by a high-pitched shriek as he crashed to the floor. They both struck it hard, Loeb hitting the floor and rolling off to the side, all the way into the downed podium - which he slammed his back into to stop his roll.

The black-robed guard sprung to action, pulling himself out of his nirvana-like state to rush over to the Loeb and yank him to his feet by his arm. Loeb found the man surprisingly strong, as he floated up to his feet effortlessly. In a hearts beat, the guard had unsheathed a small blade and was pressing it deep into Loeb throat. Loeb held his breath to keep from pushing the knife in further.

"No!" The white-robed man called from the floor, putting a hand up in a "stop" gesture. "He's just confused. His minds been twisted by modern society." He said, slowly getting to his feet. "He'll understand. Even if it's in the closing moments of this life, he'll understand."

The guard dropped the blade and quickly sheathed it again. Loeb let out a long breath before cursing the man.

"Don't be angry my son. Anger only harnesses the souls freedom."

"When I get out of here, rest assure I'll come back to prove that wrong." Loeb answered with a cold, threatening tone. The white-robe shook his head.

"Death will bring you peace that this life could not. Take them away."

And with that, the guard ushered them all back out of the room, and soon enough they were once again being led down the winding hall.

"What was that all about?" Putter asked Loeb after they'd been moving for a little while. Loeb looked at him and smirked.

"Guy shouldn't be smoking anyway. It's a nasty habit." He said in a low voice and gave a confident wink. Putter looked confused for a moment before a small grin grew on his face as well.

---

--

---

Teioh sat with his back propped against one of the four, cold rock walls that made up the confines of his prison. In his hand he grasped tightly onto the note Marlene had so casually snuck him. It was his way of keeping the event real in his mind. After all, with all the darkness and crummy meals he'd been being served for the last few days, it wasn't to farfetched to suspect the whole thing was just a silly trick his deprived mind was playing on him. But the note was real. It was small, and a little cold in his hands, but it was real. He could hold it, or throw it, or even read it again if he wanted to. There was no way his mind was powerful enough to imagine an actual physical item in his hand. At least he hoped so. And four hours after Marlene had visited him, it was confirmed. This was real.

Marlene opened the sole door of the room and stood in the doorway with a look on her face that was half exhausted, but half thrilled.

"Teioh." She said, the word fell out of her mouth rather than be projected. Teioh sighed a deep, relieving sigh and stood up. They met each other smack dab in the middle of the room and grasped each other in their arms. It was the best hug Teioh ever felt. Judging by the tightness and length of it, he guessed Marlene felt the same way. Neither spoke for a few moments. It was comfortable silence they shared, and Teioh felt it was well deserved.

"I'm sorry about hitting you." Marlene finally said, her voice just barely above a whisper sneaking out through his arms.

"I probably had it coming. I should have never let you go out in the rain that night alone."

"Teioh… you know-"

"Forget about it right now. Let's just get the hell out of here."

"Yea… ok."

Teioh was right, and Marlene knew it. Seconds in this place dragged by like hours, and the sooner they could get out, the better off they were. They'd have to save any sort of reunion chat for the safe confides of a bar back in Midgar.

"Loeb and Putter…" She began. "And Tifa…"

"We'll come back for them. And soon. _And_ with more numbers. Hopefully enough to run this whole crazy cult straight out of these mountains."

"Teioh, that won't happen. Not with the numbers we can get."

"What? What do you mean? How many nut jobs could possible be shacked up in this place? Can't be more than fifty or so at the most."

"Teioh…" She paused - the words not wanting to leave her lips. "There are hundreds."

"Hundreds!?" He repeated high-pitched and not quite in belief. The thought of hundreds of out-of-their-mind people living beneath the surface of the mountains like some bizarre ant arm ran through his brain, and quite frankly - it scared the hell out of him. He was _in_ that ant farm. That crazy, twisted ant farm. "It can't be…" Finally escaped from his throat with a dry push. "It just… can't be."

"Believe me, it's true. And it's all the more reason to get the hell out of here as fast as possible." Marlene said firmly, here eyes locked onto Teioh's. "And we have to get out with the others, or there might not be _others_ to come back and get."

Teioh nodded without speaking, his eyes blankly staring into nothing, the idea of hundreds of cultists swarming all around them at this very moment racked his brain over and over again.

"They'll kill us if they catch us?" Teioh asked, although it sounded like more of a statement. Marlene's suddenly distant and fearful eyes answered. "Marlene, what the hell did they do to you?"

She shook her head quickly as if she had realized something.

"We have to go. Now. No doubt they've been watching me… they never fully trusted me, I don't think. They'll come for us. They're probably coming right now."

Teioh realized the urgency of the situation by Marlene's shaky, determined voice - and without another word, he grabbed her by the hand and led her out of the room.

Upon exit, he realized what a foolish move that had been, releasing her hand and spinning around to meet her face. He had no clue where he was going, and could only hope that she _did_. His hopes were answered, as she bravely and swiftly took off down one way of the long, twisting, rock hall they were in - nodding her head for him to follow (as if he needed it).

And then they ran. Not the kind of leg-straining, lung-pounding run you do when there's a pissed-off Bahamut snipping at your heels - but the kind of fast-paced jog you do when you know that soon enough there _will_ be a pissed-off Bahamut snipped at your heels. Only the Bahamut Teioh was imaging was completely made up of black-robed figures who wanted nothing more than to chew off both their heads and swallow their insides like two, living bottles of blood. It was that terrifying thought that kept his mind off (or at least made in not care about) the fact that his head was spinning and his heart was practically trying to beat its way out of his chest. Five days of sitting around in an empty room, chowing down on meals that could have only been made from rotten plants or leftover Chocobo slop, could make a man lose his shape - so to speak. Now, Teioh was feeling those effects, and feeling them hard. Feeling them in his head and chest, as well as his eyes and ears. He wasn't sure if his mind was tricking him, but they seemed to be running into the wind - although he knew that was almost an impossibility deep inside these mountains. He knew they were deep inside because of the mind-numbing silence that he had experienced over the last few days. Sound seemed to be almost non-existent. No wind brushing over the mountain and letting in a low howl. No clap of thunder. No rapping of rain. There were times Teioh would say a word to himself (usually _Marlene_) in the dead silence just to make sure he hadn't gone deaf.

Now he ran through these deep mountains - ignoring every sign his body was giving him to stop - matching Marlene's constant, even pace as she methodically made her way around curves and turns like she'd grown up here, destined to one day draw a map of it blindfolded.

After a few minutes of running (by now, Teioh's chest felt ready to explode) the noises began clearing. Not the noises of outside that Teioh longed to hear again, but strange noises that scared his soul, if such a thing was possible. Screams. Agonizing, pain-filled screams that came shooting from the depths of nowhere, bouncing off the walls like some insane ping-pong balls. The whirring and low hum of machines sat beneath their feet like monsters trapped beneath a frozen lake of ice. A steady wind began to clip at the edges of Teioh's ears. He hadn't been hallucinating before. They _were_ running into the wind… somehow.

Marlene shot an occasional glance over her shoulder to make sure Teioh was still there, and each time she did it was like getting a shot of adrenaline to make his aching muscles keep going. Her dirty, determined face. A face that belonged in an insane asylum like this as much as a guy like Sephiroth deserved to be knelt before at an alter. It didn't fit - and it wasn't right. And each time he saw that face, he became more and more determined to get her the hell out of here. He even made the decision that he wouldn't take her along with him when he came back. Back to finish off this cancer of the planet. Back to bury this dirty little secret once and for all. Back to finish off the cult. Hundreds… it's a giant number when you first look at in terms of people. But once you break it down, you realize it can fall… piece by piece, it can fall.

Teioh was running - hard - but Marlene was constant in her pace, and she was slowly pulling ahead. His legs felt like two rubbery poles jolting out of his hips, but he continued to push them. He pushed them hard - smack dab into the middle of a man who had clumsily stumble out of a door on the right side of the hall. Their heads smacked together like two steel balls in a pendulum, simultaneously knocking them both to the ground. Marlene heard the impact and spun her head over her shoulder before coming to a slow halt. Teioh lifted himself into a sit and rubbed his head and already could feel the beginning of a lump forming. He glanced over at his impact partner - and his heart skipped a beat.

"Dad!" He cried out and immediately scurried over on his hands and knees to the fallen man. He cradled the mans head in his arm and stared down at him. It was his father. A little strange looking, but his father nonetheless.

"Teioh?" The man voiced from a dry, crackling throat. "Is that you my son?"

Teioh felt tears stream down his cheeks as he stared lovingly into his fathers eyes.

"Dad…" He repeated. Now his voice was small and weak… like a child's.

"Teioh! No!" Marlene shouted and began heading back to him. "That is _not_ your father!"

"Son," The man began, lifting one trembling hand up to stroke Teioh's cheek. "Don't leave me. Don't let me die… again."

Teioh frowned at the man laying on his arm. The final sentence he spoke made Teioh come to the realization his father had died. It was impossible to die again. And as he realized this, the mans face slowly transformed from the loving, old one of his father to a sick, sadistic-looking monster. It was a man, but it was a monster all the same. It had dry, dead-looking skin that barely was hanging on to its face. It had a pair of sunken-in black eyes that rolled around in its deformed head. It's teeth were rotting, daggers sticking out from black soil that made up its gums.

"Son, I love you." It whispered in a voice that was also no longer his fathers. It was a low hissing noise, like the sound a radiator makes when the heat is first turning on. And at that moment, the hand that was stroking his cheek, suddenly lowered and took a fierce hold onto his neck. "I said I love you son. Tell me you love me too."

Teioh tried to pull away, but the grip was as tight as a bolt, and the arm that held it was as strong as an iron arm. It was then Teioh realized the thing was slowly pulling itself up towards his face - those black, rotten teeth exposed behind a wide, sadistic grin.

"Give your father a kiss." It hissed at him, and then Marlene's foot was swinging into the side of its face. The toe of her boot caught its cheek and the whole thing seemed to roll off a set of hinges as it collapsed to the ground again - releasing its grip on Teioh's neck. He rubbed the spot where it had gripped it, which seemed to burn with an itch that was three inches below the surface of his skin.

"What the hell was that." He asked, getting to his feet but not taking his eyes of the lump of man/monster that now laid with its faced turned into the wall.

"If I had an explanation that would make sense and could be told within the next few seconds, believe me Teioh, I would tell you. But I don't, and we have to keep moving."

Teioh nodded, and without another word, they were running again. He risked one last glance over his shoulder as they neared a curve in the hall. Behind him he saw the thing slowly getting back up, but it wasn't a thing anymore. It was his father again. For a moment, he almost stopped to run back to him, but his brain was quick enough to tell him it wasn't real - so he pushed on.

Deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole they went. Marlene still keeping her constant pace, Teioh still amazed she knew were the hell she was going (and beginning to doubt that very fact as well). More amazing still was the fact that besides the thing they'd run into that looked like his father, but _looked_ like something out of a horror movie, they hadn't seen a single person. Not one robed man in the entire fifteen-minute-or-so run. He couldn't imagine how much ground they must have covered during those fifteen minutes, but was beginning to put numbers together. If they hadn't seen a single person this whole time, and there supposedly hundreds living in this cave-maze… how exactly big _was_ this place?

And was in the middle of that thought when his eardrums exploded. Not literally, but quiet close to it in Teioh's opinion. The sound, which had appeared as suddenly and unexpectedly as the man in the hall, seemed to come from every direction. It seemed to radiate from the very walls of the tunnels themselves. It was similar to an alarm… one that had spent years beneath the surface of the earth, and finally was busting free and shouting out its celebration with everything it had. Teioh realized he had heard the sound before, but from a much greater distance. It was the same noise he had heard at the sisters home in Nibelheim. Back then it had even been loud, but now it was damn-near deafening. His hands instinctively shot to his ears as he cringed and knelt over a bit. The explosion of noise seemed to last forever, and by the time it had finally ceased, Teioh was near the brink of throwing up. Not that there'd be much to throw up, but he would do it regardless.

He lifted his head and rubbed his fingers deep into his head behind his ears. He flexed his face, making it look like he was trying to force out a yawn that wouldn't come. After several moments of this, he shook of the remaining buzz in his ears and began heading towards Marlene.

That's when he noticed her back had gone stiff as a board, and she hadn't even bother to turn around yet - and all at once, he knew. He knew what they had done to her. He knew why they let her roam around this place. He knew that, even though they had said they trusted her and were going to give her freedom, she was their slave. He knew it all, and that's why when she turned around and her small, silvery eyes stared at him blankly and coldly, he didn't even bother to look.

They had gotten her.

They had gotten Marlene.

And he didn't have enough spirit left in him to put up a fight.

---

--

---

A young boy, perhaps no more than twelve years in age, stood in the middle of a large, sunny field. High grass and the sweet aroma of flowers and earth were his only company at the moment. In his head, things were quite different. He gripped a sword (which was actually just a thick branch that had fallen off a nearby tree, but the boy believed - and so it was a sword) and was battling evil monsters that had surrounded him on his way home from adventuring (monsters wooden posts and extra high grass). He dodged this way and that, swinging the sword courageously out in front of him. BAM! A giant alligator falls at the wrath of his trusty blade. SLICE. A ninja who almost got the drop on him from behind takes a quick cut across the stomach.

"Help me Cloud!" A voice called from back near the end of the field. The kid shot his head over and saw the princess (his little sister) being held by two angry thugs (two large rocks jutting out of the earth).

"Don't worry princess! Cloud Strife will save you!" The boy shouted heroically and charged at the goons with his sword out in front of him.

That's when the ground began to rumble.

Not _play_ rumble either. This was actually happening.

"Time out, Sarah." The boy called out to his sister, who quickly ran to his side looking terrified.

"What's that Marty?" She asked him, looking up at her brother like he should have the answer to everything that went on in the universe. He was, after all, her big brother.

The boy raised one finger to his lips, signaling shush. The girl stopped moving and speaking and, if it was possible, stuck her ears out a little further.

"Marty-

"Shhh!" He cut her off, now he was frowning and looked a little scared, and that made his little sister even more terrified.

Whatever it was, it was getting louder.

Approaching. Fast.

The boy suddenly grabbed his little sister by the shoulder and pulled her to the ground, burying them both up to their heads in grass.

Just at that moment, a dark cloud swept across the field. Only it wasn't a dark cloud at all, although it would certainly appear that way to a bird swooping through the sky on its daily travels. What it _really_ was, were men. Men in robes as black as the darkest nights and more so. Men whose faceless heads hid beneath those robes like they had some terrible disfiguration on their faces. Men who rode upon Chocobos. But not just any Chocobos… Black Chocobos. Tall, fierce birds whose didn't seem at all like the tame, mild-mannered ones at farms. Or even like the determined, speedy ones at the Gold Saucer race track. These birds were evil. It was in their cold, black eyes. It was in their toughened legs and feet, and their rough feathers that poked out from their rugged bodies like needles that had been stuck into something terrible to take it down. Only the terrible thing didn't go down from the needles - it used them as power. Their beaks were slightly ajar, and inside each you could see a set of sharp teeth rowed all around the inside. And if you could see even closer, you'd catch the distinct stains of blood littered all across them. What they _ate_ bled. What they _carried_… were the cult.

After a minute or two of the loud trampling of the horde, it was finally over. The boy peaked his head over the grass and watched the remains of them head into the forest to the west.

"Holy shit." He whispered. His sister (who was in tears, and practically hysterical from having to keep silent and still that entire time) rose up behind him, wiping snots and tears from her face with the back of her arm.

"What was it Marty?" She asked him through a choked-up throat.

Marty knew, but he wouldn't say. He had just seen the cult. THE cult. The cult him and his friends would sit up together late at night and tell stories about - each claiming, of course, to have had a run-in or two with them, but none of them actually had. Until now. Marty had just had a run-in with the cult! Of course when he would tell the story later to his buddies, he would have been valiantly fighting them off defending his sister instead of hiding in the grass like some baby. He had seen the cult in broad daylight too. He'd never heard a story of them traveling in daylight.

"Marty! What was it!?" His little sis cried at him, demanding an answer.

"It was a group of chocobo's." He finally spit out - but cautiously leaving out the fact that they were bigger than chocobo's. And all black. And he could swear that as he peaked through the grass they hid in, each and every one of their black eyes seemed to land on him. Seem to know exactly where he was, but didn't seem to care at all. "They must have gotten out of a farm or something."

"Oh! I want to see!" She wined.

She didn't want to see. She would have been up all night for the next seven nights if she had.

A moment of silence passed as the boy simply stared at the forest, waiting for something to happen that never would. His sister tugged at his arm, breaking his stare.

"Can we go home Marty?"

"Sure." He answered coolly. But inside he wanted to be home probably much worse than she did. And it would be a long time before he played in this field again.

He dropped the stick (which was a stick again - he wouldn't be caught dead holding a sword after what had just happened) and him and his sister ran home as fast as they could. His sister never really knew why.

---

Meanwhile, the dark cloud kept moving over the planet. It moved as swiftly and quickly as if it really _were_ one big dark cloud, even though it was made up of a few dozen riders with a few dozen chocobo's. It moved across the land relentlessly, until it came to Nibelheim, where the whole big thing came to a slow halt behind the head riders upraised hand. He saw something laying in the middle of the street. With another gesture, he sent a man behind him to go check it out.

The robed man hopped off his chocobo and walked over to the thing.

The thing was Cloud Strife.

And the thing was alive.

The robed man brought his trembling hands to his face and stared down at him. He stayed that way for many seconds before finally standing and turning to face the crowd of robed men and black chocobo's behind him. When he did, he spoke one word.

"Neodeity."

Instantly, every single voice that was in the crowd was speaking. Their voices were a mixture of shock, amazement, doubt, joy, and even fear. The head rider hopped off his chocobo and made his way to the man. It took him a second to catch his breath and steady his suddenly-wobbly legs before he too spun around and shouted.

"Neodeity!"

More mixed voices, but before the tones in them could be picked out, the head rider ushered them to come forth, and as if he had just conducted an orchestra, they all obeyed immediately.

When all the riders were dismounted, the head rider shouted a strange word at the Chocobo's and waved his arms. Once again, as if they had one single thought, they all took a few steps backwards before turning and retreating out of the town.

The head rider continued his command, motioning them to lift the Neodeity (Cloud). And so they did.

If Cloud was conscious, which he wasn't, he would have felt like he was body surfing, only instead of moving along their hands, their hands held him in place as the entire bunch of them circled around him and began moving. Clouds body lay motionless on top of them like a leaf that had fallen onto a great, big, black rock. His arms were stretched out wide to both sides, his legs flopped around carelessly above the hands of the robed men. His eyes were shut, and his head bobbled around with each step they took.

And they _were_ taking steps. They were moving. They were marching. They were pushing on.

Towards the mountain.

---


	16. A Secret Revealed

The tunnels inside Mount Nibel wound. They wound and coiled and spun and twisted - like a spiders web that had been crafted from one hell of a messed up arachnid. One that only knew structure as well as it knew sanity. The tunnels dipped down, and then back up again in a useless wavy pattern. They took unnecessary curves that could only be leading in wide, arching circles. And as Teioh navigated these tunnels with Marlene's cold, silver eyes burning holes in the back of his neck, he believed that you had to be careful making your way around this place. These tunnels wound. Wound, coiled, spun and twisted - and if you weren't careful, your mind would wind with them.

Unless his mind had already made the decision to jump off the sanity bridge. After all, hadn't he seen his father back there? His _dead_ father, lying on the ground but very much alive. Hadn't he spoken to him? Hadn't the thing called him by name?

It was these questions that simultaneously wound through Teioh's head as his legs wound their way through the tunnels. Tunnels. That's what he thought of them as now. At first, he was thinking of them as hallways, but that was too nice (and too _sane_) of a word for them. These were tunnels all right. And they seemingly knew no end.

But Marlene knew an end, and it was her cold, stern hand on his shoulder that brought them both to the end of their journey. A door hung off to the right side of the tunnel, sticking out like a white board in wooden fence. It seemed to loom over his shoulder and snicker at him. This door was different than the one that had him locked in his room before. Even different than the one that the ma… the _thing_ came tumbling out of before claiming to be his father. This door was more… normal. Tall, white and it even had a doorknob that didn't look like it's been dragged through the dirt for most its life.

It was _this_ door that loomed over his shoulder. _This_ door that snickered at him, mocking his small figure beneath its large, white frame. And it was _this_ door that Marlene gripped its handle before pushing it back on its hinges - causing it to sway backwards and disappear around the edge of the doorway.

She gestured him inside, never breaking her lifeless, relentless gaze that made him feel ten sorts of depressed all at once. He stepped inside…

…and into a hospital?

At first glance, yes, it was a hospital room. The walls were all white here, matching the door. The only reason he knew the walls were white immediately was because of the blinding bright lights that lined the ceiling - long, fluorescent tubes placed in carved out rectangles that ran at regular intervals from the front of the room to the back. The lights probably weren't _that_ bright, but in contrast with the rest of what he'd seen - dark, gloomy, and damp - it was like stepping into the inside of the sun.

It took his eyes a moment to adjust. When his pupils were the appropriate size, the rest of the details of the room came into view. Tall medical chairs in the center of the room, small white cots in the back left corner, tables and more tables of assorted things lined the entire right wall - watched over carefully by rows of glass cabinets above them. A big machine hunkered down at the far end of the room which sat calmly, but looked waiting and ready, like some sleeping monster with one eye open. Along the left wall, and most importantly (Teioh realized after his eyes fell that way last), were three men in white robes almost identical to the black ones he'd seen on everyone else. Their hoods hung far over their heads, but their mouths and chins were showing. Showing clean-shaven, shit-eating grins that were sickeningly pleased to have a new "patient" in their presence.

Teioh stepped into the hospital room just as Marlene's hand fell on his shoulder to nudge him along. He didn't like that hand touching him. It wasn't hers, and it didn't belong. On him _or_ her.

All three of the white-robed men walked to meet him halfway, one of them slightly ahead of the other two. This is the one that put up his hands in a stop gesture, to which Teioh obeyed, and then began to speak.

"Welcome son."

"Don't you ever call me that." He spit out quickly. A sudden warm wash of anger fell over him. No one was going to call him son ever again. The man- the _thing_ in the hallway reminded him of that. To this response, he saw a smile peak out from behind the mans shadowed face.

"Your peace is almost here, _friend_. You won't be a product of evil for much longer." The man spoke slowly and calmly, and the way he casually let these words roll off his tongue frightened Teioh a bit. Only a bit - and he wouldn't dare let it show.

"You're gonna kill me, don't bother with the lectures if that's what you're planning. I won't listen _or_ care resulting in a massive waste of time on both our parts."

To this, the man smiled again. A kind of warm, inviting smile. The kind your friendly neighbor gives you if you catch eyes heading out in the morning. The kind a teacher gives a student when he's done good, or the kind two friends have when sharing an inside joke. That was what Teioh felt the smile was like. Like there was some inside joke that he wasn't in on, and beneath the warm exterior of the smile, all the coldness and insanity of the man was waiting to burst out like a pot full of boiling water.

The man gestured and within seconds, Teioh was being led by both arms to one of the chairs in the middle of the room by the two other robed men. Next, he was shoved into the seat of it and two leather straps were buckled over his wrists securing him to the chair. He tugged at each one gently with no real purpose. He knew they would have no give - no weakness. Not in a place like this where restriction and control seemed to be such an intricate part of the plan.

He didn't know what the hell these people were going to do to him, and quite frankly at that point, he didn't care. They had brainwashed Marlene, just like the sisters. His two friends were caught and possibly dead already. Escape through these tunnels was about as likely as winning a Chocobo race on foot - and even if he did escape, how long would his freedom last? How long before Rex Arinthone came raining fire and brimstone down to find him after what they'd pulled?

And than there was Cloud. A shimmer of hope in this whole mess. A chance that not _every_thing had gone to shit. But where in the hell was he? Packed up his bags and ran home to hermit island for all Teioh knew. Or dead in a gutter somewhere - which, upon second thought, seemed more likely. He'd looked into Cloud's eyes when he'd explained why he was helping them. There was old age, maybe a bit senility, but behind that was honesty and passion. Cloud wanted to help, he really did. Even if he did kick the bucket, Teioh had to give him that.

A strange sight pulled Teioh from his minds wandering thoughts. Directly across from him, the two robed men were strapping Marlene into a different chair.

_What the hell?_

They pulled the straps tight as she continued to stare blankly ahead of herself into nothing.

"Hey." Teioh called over to them. "What are you doing?" His arms suddenly pulled up - but the straps over his wrists gave no leeway. They didn't answer him. Didn't even acknowledge him. "Hey!" He repeated, feeling that warm wash of anger take its second spill. "What the hell are you doing to her!?"

And then he watched in curiosity as the men pushed her head down, and he began to feel more helpless than he ever had. He yanked forward in his seat, but it was no use. The third robed man walked over to the back of the chair and stared down at her (neck?) for a few seconds.

"What's going on!? What are you doing!?" Teioh repeated, growing more and more frustrated as he was ignored yet again.

The man leaned in with two hands carefully dangling in front of his face. Teioh watched this helplessly. The mans robe completely hid his face now, and he began to look more like a monster than a man at all. His hands outstretched fingers found their way to the back of her head. No. The backs of… her ears?

Teioh frowned in confusion. Suddenly, a small sound reminiscent of tape being quickly ripped off something filled the room, echoing off the four walls like a tennis ball being thrown around. Teioh watched. He watched as the robed man carried two small rectangles that looked like computer chips away towards a desk to his right. He watched as the other two men followed. He watched as Marlene's body began to stir. And he watched as she slowly lifted her head… and her two eyes - her two _real_ eyes - met his.

"Marlene?" Teioh cried out in half wonder, half joy. "Marlene!?"

A small sound escaped her lips like she had just woken up, and then she took a deep gasp of breath, tilting her head up and arching her back as much as the chair would allow it.

"Marlene." He called in a small voice one last time, fearful that what he'd seen had just been a hopeful trick his mind played instead of a reality.

She lowered her face.

And Teioh let out a deep sigh of relief. It was her.

"Teioh…" She said, struggling to speak. "What… where are you?"

Teioh smiled. She was bit disoriented, but she knew his name - and that was a good thing. A damn good thing. She was going to be OK.

And that's when it hit him. How could he have been foolish enough to thing they were using some sort of brainwashing technique? Or that they could simply make people go nuts with a simple alarm. Their method wasn't anywhere near as mysterious, _or_ as long-term, thankfully. It was simple technology. Probably conjured up by some disgruntled Shinra nerd, fresh off the Science Department. Some sort of mini-radio that messed with your brainwaves or something when sent off close enough to your head. Somewhere close to your head, but that wasn't visible for any curious party like himself to pluck off. Somewhere like the backs of your ears.

"Son of a bitch…" Teioh muttered under his breath.

"What?" Marlene asked, now beginning to come to her senses.

Marlene's confused, innocent 'What?' sent off another shockwave in his head. _Yea, so what Teioh, you solved the mystery of the silver-eyed crazies. Now you just have to get the hell out of here with the girl and we can roll credits_.

And suddenly that hopeless, careless feeling fell off him - and he felt about twenty pounds lighter. He had a reason to fight now. A reason to keep on going. And only two little leather straps and three not-so-little robed men stood in his way.

He suddenly began pulling and twisting his arms, trying desperately to break free. Marlene stared at him, still looking a bit lost. He shoved his body this way and that way. He tried standing up and using his legs to push out of the straps. He yanked and pulled and ripped until it felt like his arm was going to pull out of its socket.

No dice.

Restriction and control were too important in a place like this to have some weak straps.

"Teioh, what the hell's going on. You're scaring me." Marlene said, suddenly testing (although not nearly as frantically) her bonds.

"Marlene, I don't know what you remember and what you don't." Teioh said taking deep breaths to catch his wind. "But right now, we're waist deep in trouble and we're sinking fast." He motioned with his head towards the three robed men to his right, who were gathering together looking something over at a table.

Marlene said nothing, but shook her head in recognition. She had a frightened face on, and Teioh saw she knew what was going on.

At that moment, the door to the medical room swung open. Marlene glanced over Teioh's shoulder, which prompted him to quickly strain his neck and back to see behind himself as well.

A black-robe stood in the doorway.

"We're taking the damned down to the feeding pit. Do they need medical clearance?" He said - his voice deep, yet somehow sharp.

"No." One of the white-robes answered, glancing over his shoulder.

"Shots?"

"No."

The black-robe nodded and then made a gesture to someone in the tunnel. Teioh watched as another black-robe walked past. Followed by the three sisters with their silvery eyes, who where then followed by two familiar faces.

"Putter! Loeb!" Teioh cried out. They both shot a look into the room. "It's behind their ears! It's behind their god damn ears!" But by that time, they had both already been pushed along by two more black-robes, and the door was closed.

Teioh spun around in his chair and took deep breaths. He wasn't sure if they heard him, but it was damn good to see them alive.

_The damned._

The word shot into his head like a bullet.

_Feeding pit._

It hurt his head to even put the two saying together. It hurt his heart. He looked over to Marlene and saw the same concern in her face. He knew it was a long shot, but it was a chance. They might have heard him. They might be able to get free. They might be able to get back here and save him and Marlene before the white-robe got to inject them with the syringe filled with black liquid he now held in his hands.

---

--

---

"Behind their ears?" Putter muttered to Loeb as they marched down the tunnel. "What does _that_ mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Loeb answered, keeping his voice low. Putter gave him a confused frown, to which Loeb replied by nodding his head backwards gesturing to the black robed men behind them. Putter glanced back and returned with one eyebrow raised.

"Huh?"

"Why do you think they wear those hooded robes? It's to hide their ears." Loeb explained. Putter opened his mouth a bit and began nodding. "I don't know what the hell they could be hiding, but that has to be it. Maybe it's an off switch or something."

Putter laughed, but the possibility wasn't too farfetched. After all, these guys _did_ act like robots. They marched and gestured… spoke only when necessary… moved in a funny sort of way, like their legs didn't quite work so good anymore.

"So… do we make a move?" Putter questioned, lowering his voice even more than before.

"No. Not yet at least. Regardless if we know a secret about them or not, we're still outnumbered."

"Outnumbered?" Putter repeated giving his friend a strange, amused look. "Since when do _you_ stack the odds?"

"Hey, Teioh ain't around. _Some_one has to think rationally."

"Great," Putter replied. "With you on rationality duty, does that make _me_ the reckless one?"

"No, of course not. You're still the pudgy one." Loeb answered, shooting Putter a playful grin. Putter sighed.

"Still making fat jokes right to the end, huh old friend?"

"The end?"

Putter said nothing to that. He only watched his feet as they carried him forwards. Loeb shook his head.

"It ain't the end Ol' Plump One. It ain't the end till the victory music sounds." He said confidently. It was a chocobo race reference, and one Putter didn't get due to the fact that (mostly because of his size) he never raced chocobo.

Talking helped pass the time (which neither of them knew was a good thing or a bad thing), and they now came to a sharp turn in the tunnel which gave way to a very large circular room - much like the one they'd been told their lives were useless in a while ago. Except this room didn't have a great big podium in its center. Instead, there was a large metal square cut into the floor. At each corner of the square, a large, heavy-looking chain ran from it up to the ceiling where it hooked around a steel gear before running diagonally down to the corners of the room. The floor of the metal square was grating, and below you could see a seemingly endless black pit. A faint smell of something nasty carried up through that grate and squeezed into every inch of air in the room. Something like wet hair, or old meat. Maybe a bit of both.

On the far end of the square, a white-robe stood with a small book in his hands. He smiled at them and beckoned the black-robes to move them forward. They did, and eventually they - along with the sisters - were standing smack dab in the middle of the square. The five black-robes took stances around the perimeter of it, carefully lining themselves up so they were a good inch or so back from the grating itself.

Loeb spun his head in both directions with untrusting eyes. He watched as they all folded their hands in front of themselves and lowered their heads. Opportunity was knocking again. His hands carefully dug their way into the back of his pants and searched for the small lighter he had stealthily stolen from the podium man during their… collision.

The white-robe with the book opened it up to a page and began reading. He read in a language neither Loeb or Putter had heard before. It was full of strange sounds and weird phrasings. The white-robe moved his free hand about while he did this.

Loeb's fingers found the lighter, and quickly - but carefully - slid it out. He fondled with it for a moment before getting the correct hold on it.

Now, the white-robe stopped reading and closed the book. Instead, he began singing - still in that strange language that Putter was pretty sure had been made up by these nuts.

"I hope that's not the victory music." Putter said.

Loeb flicked the lighter. No good. Again. Nothing but a small spark.

And then the whole room seemed to shift, like the entire mountain just had a hiccup. Only it wasn't the room that moved, it was the metal square they were standing on. The sound of heavy chain rubbing against steel filled everyone's ears - and then they were moving. Descending.

Loeb flicked the lighter again. This time the spark caught and a small flame burned silently behind his back. He positioned it as best he could under the ropes that bound his wrists.

The white-robe was singing even louder now, fighting to make his voice powerful over the loud sound of the chains.

"Oh rational one… I think we might be in trouble here." Putter said nervously.

Loeb cursed under his breath as he waited impatiently for the rope to catch fire. He began to pull his wrists apart as hard as he could, ready to break the singed rope as soon as it weakened enough. He glanced up to see that the floor was now waist high.

"Loeb, seriously." Putter said. He began pulling at his own bonds frantically. The sisters stood calmly staring at nothing.

The man continued to sing, his voice now taking on a strange echo in the small square of ground that they were descending into.

Loeb pulled as hard as he could… and the ropes snapped, falling to the grating below - singed a dark black in the middle. He yanked his arms around to his front and got ready to take action.

Only now the floor was neck high, and as he stared furiously at the white-robe who was still singing methodically, the last light of the room above slowly raised above his eyes, dropping them all into the shadows of the mountain. He looked around in a circle at the black-robes who stood at every side. They watched silently and stilly - like giant black statues, and he could only think; _This is what it would look like if you were buried alive._

"Damn it!" He yelled, kicking into the ascending wall to his right.

Loeb got Putter free, and then the two of them stood in darkness as the platform slowly descended and the mans voice, along with the sound of the chains running along the gears, began to fade away like the fade-out at the end of a song. With each passing moment the rotting stench from below became more and more pungent, and the temperature seemed to decline a degree for every second they were descending.

Putter looked up. He saw the small square of light shrinking back at ground level, and couldn't help to think of looking up a chimney. It brought him back to his childhood; like he was looking into a tunnel to the past. He remembered one particularly curious night many years ago, when he had snuck down into the living room of his house to investigate a strange noise he heard lying in his bed, dreaming about becoming the planets first, fat, Chocobo racing champion. He still carried that dream as he crept down the stairs - tightly clutching a red, fuzz, blanket and a small flashlight that fit snugly in his tiny - but plump - fingers. Sneaking up to investigate that pesky chimney in the middle of the night… what an adventurer he had been. He remembered aiming the little flashlight all the way up to the top, where the dark, blue, sky laid over the hole like a door. A whiff of cool night air rushed down to meet his face, and just at that moment his cat had leaped off the kitchen table and landed on an old board in the floor that banged every time you stepped on it. He had jumped much higher than anyone would believe he did when he told the story later on, and could swear he almost jumped straight out of that chimney. In reality, he had hopped up quite a bit, and then slammed his head into the brick foundation of the chimneys fireplace - knocking him out cold. When he awoke to his mother hovering above him in tears, crying for 'Her baby' to wake up, he couldn't remember for the life of him what had happened.

Until the next night, when he headed downstairs for a drink of water, and froze dead in front of the fireplace. He heard the cold air whispering from it - as if calling him. Before he knew what he was doing, his feet were carrying him towards it. He still didn't remember what'd happened the night before, but knew it was something bad. Something that terrified him. The next thing he knew, he was staring down the barrel of the chimney-gun again, breathing in the cold air as it wrapped its hand around him. And suddenly, it came back to him ten fold; the fear from the night before. He shrieked in terror as something near the top of the chimney moved, sending him tumbling backwards before tripping over the lip of the rug and landing on his large ass.

It was worst feeling he had ever felt, staring up into that chimney and seeing that… _thing_ move - but now, standing here inside the mountain, being lowered to god-knows-where, he felt worse. Much worse. And for a moment - only a brief, fleeting moment - his eyes watched as the thing from his chimney all those years ago darted past the hole at the top.

"Hey man, you OK?" Loeb called out in the dark.

"Huh?" Putter replied a bit spacey.

"You trying to take my arm _off_?"

Putter realized he had suddenly reach out and squeezed Loeb's arm. He quickly let go and flushed a bright red, which - fortunately for him - no one could see in the black of the hole they were in.

"We're going to be fine. Whatever it is down there, we can handle it. Right? I mean come on! We've been through worse."

"Much worse." Putter added as he shook his head free of his nostalgic trance. He wasn't sure if he believed himself, but it felt good to say it anyway.

"Right. So what can they possibly throw at us that's gonna top those goons at the Gold Saucer? The ones that almost tossed us straight to Corel, you remember?"

Putter laughed at this before saying; "Yea, we showed them guys, huh?"

"_Showed_ them? That one big one _cried_!"

The both laughed at that.

"How bout those Shinra at Junon a couple years ago?" Putter asked, still laughing a bit.

"Oh man. _You_ were drunk, _I_ was only fourteen, and _neither_ of us knew a damn thing about-

"Surfing." They both said at the same time before cracking up.

"Man, but did they buy that or what?" Putter asked, holding his side which had begun to ache a bit from laughing.

"Yea… they sure did."

The laughter lingered on for a bit before fading out like the sounds from above, and then they both sat in silence the rest of the way - both of them cherishing their memories, and hoping they would make it out of this to live out some more.

The tunnel finally ended about two minutes later. The surrounding walls of the tunnel did not slowly taper off; they cut off sharply at right angles that made up the ceiling of the room below.

What a room it was. Actually, it wasn't much of a _room_ at all. It was a sea of black that stretched out for what could have been miles in every direction. The cramped, thick, air of the tunnel was immediately dissipated - replaced with a vast, cool, wind that seemed to be dancing wildly in every direction. Even _that_, however, did nothing to mask the smell, which had seemed bad in the room above and worse in the tunnel on the way down. Here in the actual room, it was damn-near nauseating.

The metal square plopped onto the ground below with a soft thud, momentarily buckling everyone's knees. There was a strange crackling noise from beneath their feet as the square settled in, and then there was silence.

Just as Loeb was about to comment on how empty this "room" was, a low, humming noise kicked in from about twenty feet above them. He looked up to see four, faint eyes staring at him from each corner of the tunnel they had came through.

No. On second look, they weren't eyes, but lights - slowly waking up like those at a sports stadium.

In another handful of seconds, they were wide-awake. Four circles of bright, white dotted the corners of the tunnel above; Each of them casting a wide beam of light down at the five prisoners below. Loeb squinted and reflexively threw up a hand to shield himself from their all-seeing-stare.

"Gees!" Putter cried out as he shielded his eyes as well. "What are they gonna do? Melt us to death over the course of a year!?"

Both their eyes slowly adjusted to the lights, and they now stood side-by-side in the middle of the square. The lights bounced off the metal grating, giving off a soft glow that lit up about six-feet-or-so around them. In that six feet was a sight that horrified them.

"Shit." Was all Loeb could utter as he began circling around to confirm what he saw was in fact on _all_ sides of the square. It was.

Bones. Some bare - some not-so-bare. They huddled around the metal floor like the crowd at a football game. They jabbed and stuck the air randomly, raising at least a foot off the floor in some piles. Amidst them were torn pieces of fabric which once lived as clothes, but now rotted as rags. Garbage and debris filled any unoccupied nook and cranny of the bone crowd. A gold watch lay hanging from the eye socket of a skull. A thick, leather, boot with tiny nips in it was hanging from the end of a long, decaying leg bone. The remains of a hand jabbed up through the grating of the square at one corner, looking like a zombie trying to escape his grave.

"We're standing on the damn things man! We're freaking _standing_ on them!" Putter exclaimed in horror as he threw his hands up. He was looking down beneath the grating at the dirty white sea of bones they were only two inches above.

Loeb didn't need to be told this. He was currently riding out his own sickening feeling. He grabbed at the sides of his head, which seemed to pulse rapidly beneath his fingers. His stomach was doing loops. For one terrified moment, he thought he was going to throw up on this little square of metal they had - adding more disgust to the whole situation. Luckily, he was able to beat it back down by widening his eyes and taking a deep breath.

The worse part of all this was the stench, which at ground-level, became unbearable.

"What the hell _is_ that!" Putter cried out, pinching his nose. "Bones don't smell. Do they? It's not like theirs enough meat left on them to rot."

From somewhere deep in the area they were in, a high, shrill, noise cut the air like a streak of lightning. It was quick and sharp, and it echoed several times before the silence returned.

Putter and Loeb exchanged worried looks.

"That sounded like a chocobo." Loeb said, unintentionally whispering. Putter nodded, not breaking his stare. "Like some pissed-off chocobo." Putter nodded again. That's when Loeb noticed a small glowing square on his cheek. He squinted at it. It was very-slightly moving.

"What are you looking at?" Putter whispered nervously.

Loeb got close to the square, and upon noticing it was actually reflected light, turned his head to trace the line it came from.

The line led directly to the back of the youngest sisters head. Behind her ear, actually.

"Loeb?" Putter questioned.

"Son of a gun." Loeb said absentmindedly. He began heading towards Mindy.

"Yo! What's going on!?" Putter demanded.

"Behind their ears!" Loeb answered. "Behind _their_ ears!"

"Have you lost your mind?"

"No! Look!"

Loeb gestured Putter over, and when he came he pointed at the back of the small, blondes, ear. On it was a small square of metal - like a super-small version of the one they were standing on. There was a dim red light glowing from beneath its edges.

"What is that?" Putter asked.

"Hell if I know, but I'd be a fool not to find out." And with those words, Loeb reached out and peeled off the little square. It felt and sounded like nothing more than a strong band-aid coming off.

Mindy instantly collapsed to the floor and her small body began twitching uncontrollably.

"What did you do!?" Putter yelled, kneeling down beside her and trying to get a hold of her shoulders. Loeb looked down at her in shock. Some of it was because of what had happened, but the rest was because every time his eyes met hers, he saw that one of them had returned to normal while the other had not.

Mindy continued to twitch and shake, rolling around on the grate, pulling at her hair, trying to scream, but only little sounds were coming out.

"Her other ear! Check her other ear!" Loeb commanded, now back in reality. Putter managed to get a hold on her shoulders and tilted her to her side. Sure enough, another little square was there. He quickly ripped it off.

She stopped moving. Completely.

"Now what did _you_ do!?" Loeb shouted.

Before Putter could answer, Mindy shot up taking in a deep gasp of breath. Her head smashed into Putters, which sent the pudgy one to his ass. She stared forward with a face of shock, sharply taking long breaths. Her wide, blue eyes stared into the blackness.

Putter got up and stood in front of her on her right. Loeb was at her left. They stared down at her in curious wonder - waiting to see what would happen next.

She coughed and than slowly raised her head to meet their stares. She looked confusedly back and forth between them.

"Mindy?" Putter said cautiously. The small blonde squinted at him.

"Uncle Freddie?" She asked confusedly.

A smile cracked on Loebs face. He turned to see the same one on Putter. They were going to be OK. All of them.

Another high-pitched shriek came howling from the blackness around them - this one seeming closer than the last.

They'd be OK… but for how long, he wasn't sure.

Something wicked was coming their way.

---


	17. Back to Life

While each of the three comrades he came to Nibelheim with were facing their possible deaths, Cloud Strife was coming back to life.

It was a slow process. First, his body began to stir: muscles coming back to working form that had become stiff and almost useless; joints and bones cracking as they remembered how to function; fingers that clawed at the air to run circulation back into their hands. His neck and back were the worst, feeling like someone had stuck a hard piece of wood down his spine. He twisted it and listened as it cracked in twenty different places. A low groan escaped his lips as his face started working again - grimacing at the splitting headache he discovered as he woke up. His eyes shot open as he took a deep breath - stale, stuffy air filling his lungs. His pale, blue, eyes widened as he came to the sudden realization that he had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten here. Wherever he was, it was dark.

_You're dead._

The thought shot into his head, causing him to quickly try getting to his feet - which he failed at, tumbling down midway and landing on his shoulder. Another thought came to him as he hit the ground and felt a surge of pain rush through his body.

He threw his hands down to his shirt as fast as he could before gripping the edges of it and yanking it up. He leaned forward and looked down at his stomach to see-

Nothing.

"What?" He muttered to himself. Hadn't he failed Tifa? Hadn't he lost to the pipe-swinger? Hadn't he been stabbed?

…Hadn't he died?

_You're dead._

"No…" He answered his own thought as he ran his fingers through his hair, which felt dirty and greasy. "No." He repeated, trying to get a grasp on the situation. "I didn't die."

"No, you didn't." A voice answered, loudly cutting through the silent darkness like a beam of light. Cloud shot his head in the direction it came from, but only wound up squinting into blackness. He cocked his head to the side and listened for any sign of life: the shuffle of feet; the shifting of position; the silent in and out pattern of breathing. He heard none of it. That's when a third thought hit him - this one the worst yet.

What if he _was_ dead? What if _this_ was the afterlife. An endlessly quiet and black room that you had to sit in for the rest of eternity, wondering if you were alive or dead - hoping for the former, but believing the latter. The thought closed his throat. It made his skin feel hot and itchy. He began taking short, sharp breaths. Suddenly, he found himself wanting (_needing_) to hear that voice again.

"Hello?" He called out into the dark.

_"Cloud?"_

"Cloud."

Cloud stopped breathing and stared into the black. Had he just heard a voice echo, or did _two_ people just call out to him? Yes, he was almost certain it was two people. But… one of them wasn't in the room… they were…

Before he could finish that though, the voice returned saying: "You've come home, Cloud. You're finally where you belong."

Suddenly, as if an artist had begun painting the picture he saw through his eyes, the room began to lose its darkness. Light and color bloomed out from all around him and in every direction. He saw a floor take shape beneath him. He saw a rock wall form to his right - a rock wall with a ceiling twenty feet above it. As the picture continued to be painted, the wall began to come to life. A large painting hung on it of some man. A few feet down from that, a blue and gold piece of cloth hung from the ceiling. On it were many patterns of beasts and men together. They weren't fighting, they were almost… embracing one another. Further down the wall, a large table formed. Many things began to appear on it. Gold and silver things. Wooden things. Things that looked sharp and dangerous, as well as things that looked useful and intelligent. The wall sharply cut right to form another. It ran its course quickly, coming to a stop thirty feet or so later and cutting another corner into the room. In the middle of that wall was something… but Cloud couldn't make it out. It was still dark and blurry, like the rest of the room had been only seconds ago. Eventually, all four walls were formed around him, and everything in the room was clear. The place reminded him of somewhere. Somewhere that had been buried deep in his memory and nearly forgotten until just then. The Temple of the Ancients. It looked like some glorified throne room from The Temple.

"Welcome home… Neodeity." The voice said from behind its black, fuzzy, shield. And as Cloud squinted at it and it began to take focus, another thought came to him. He was sick, he knew that for sure. But what if his sickness had gotten this bad - what if it had gotten to the point where he was hallucinating? After all, hadn't Rufus said something about that? He couldn't remember, but had a damn strong feeling he had.

The blackness at the back of the room faded. Behind it was a robed man sitting on a large chair that's golden edges glowed from a nearby candle. The robed man did not look like all the others though. His robe was red with a similar golden lining around it that _also_ took on a soft glow. His hood was not down. His face was revealed, and staring at it gave Cloud an eerie, dreamlike feeling. The man was younger than Cloud, probably not much older than thirty. He was clean shaven and had a full head of slicked-back, black hair that had tiny streaks of premature greys that ran alongside it. Two beady, black, eyes lined up close together - in the middle of which was a long nose with a bit of a hump in the middle. The man had a tight smile that was framed by two thin lips. His dark, black eyebrows came to a point at the ends of his face before dipping back down to frame his eyes. He stared at Cloud from the cave of his folded-up, red hood, and wore his tight smile like it was attached to him.

"Surely," The man finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity of staring. "You must have questions."

"Tifa." Cloud quickly answered without thinking.

The mans smile grew.

"Good. You've got passion, Neodeity. That's for sure. You'll make a fine replacement."

"Didn't I die?" Another sentence poured out of his mouth thoughtlessly. It was as if staring at this man had made him lose his ability to think.

"No, friend. You're alive. Soon, you'll be more alive than you've ever been."

"But…" Clouds hands reflexively went to his stomach and grabbed at the spot where he had been stabbed. "…I…"

The man waited patiently.

"I died. Pipe-swinger. Pipe-swinger got me."

"Pipe-swinger?" The man repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Tell me about this… pipe-swinger."

Cloud didn't know whether he wanted to tell the man or not, but at that point, he wasn't sure he was calling the shots on what he did and what he did _not_ do.

"Cologne. He wore… cheap cologne. He was following me. He _killed_ me."

"Did he now…" The man said, seeming to be amused by the story. "Did he kill you Cloud? No, _I_ don't think he did. But did he end your life? I think _that_ is a much more suitable answer. You see, dieing and having your life end are two very different things. Death… that's forever and ever stuff there. That's the end of all time, the end of all things. But since you're here - which you very clearly are - that could not have happened. What _did_ happen, Neodeity, is your life was ended. You're meaningless, miserable existence on this planet was ended, and your knew life - meaning_ful_ and joyous - began. It's start is right here - right now. You died… Cloud Strife died… but Neodeity was born."

Cloud frowned at the man in confusion as he spoke. He wanted to tell the man to piss-off more than anything, but found he couldn't pry his eyes away from him, _or _make himself stop listening to the senseless babbling.

"This pipe-swinger you speak of. I am very much convinced - as my years of research and study on the subject of destiny has led me to - that this thing you speak of was a product of your imagination, Neodeity. _I _believe he wasn't real at all."

Cloud began shaking his head.

"Before you deny it, answer me this. Did anyone else ever _see_ this… pipe-swinger?"

Cloud pulled himself to his feet. It simultaneously hurt his back, neck _and_ legs as he did so. The man watched him carefully, like he was watching a play unfold before his eyes.

"_I _saw him. That's enough proof for me." He said, finally coming to a full stance.

"Is it? Isn't it possible you saw him because you _wanted _to see him? No… _needed_ to see him."

Cloud squinted his eyes and tilted his head a bit.

"Yes. You needed him, Neodeity. You needed him to guide you. To _push_ you. To make sure your trip back home went smoothly."

"Back home?"

"Back here. Back to mother."

_"Cloud."_

"What did you just say?" Cloud quickly demanded. He thought he had heard two voices again.

"No one else ever saw your pipe-swinger, Neodeity. No one but you, because you were the only one who needed to see him. He led you here didn't he?"

"No… he-

Cloud stopped abruptly. Suddenly, the pipe-swingers voice was in his head, telling him that Tifa was at Nibelheim. He had told him back at the place he'd met up with Barret. Back when he first came to Midgar. Back when he was… alone - just him and the pipe-swinger.

"I can tell by your face, you're beginning to believe me."

"No." Cloud answered quickly and defensively.

"Come now, Cloud. You only saw him when you needed to. When you needed information, or you started to get… lazy."

Cloud thought of himself at the bar - drinking and actually enjoying himself for a few seconds - until that damn guy… and then… and then the pipe-swinger. He began to shake his head.

"And then your 'pipe-swinger' must have finally realized how he could get you home. He had to make you believe you were dead. Make you believe you had to lay in the middle of the road and wait… wait for _my_ men to come through and see you, _just_ so they could rush you back home before anything else could happen to you."

"No!" Cloud shouted at the man.

"Yes!" The man shouted back. "Yes, Neodeity! Yes! There IS NO PIPE-SWINGER! _You_… are _him_!"

Cloud shook his head and stared into nothing as his mouth fell slightly open. Instantly, the memories of every encounter he had with the pipe-swinger came rushing back into his head: Inside Barrets meeting room; At the bar; In Nibelheim. And in every meeting with the man, something was different. Something was _terribly _different. The pipe-swinger had _Cloud's_ face.

"No…" Cloud repeated, putting his hands on the sides of his head. "No… I'm sick… I'm hallucinating."

"No, Neodeity. The hallucinating is over. The time to see with true eyes has come."

"This isn't real. This is a dream… this is just a dream." Cloud began muttering to himself.

"They're _all_ dreaming, Neodeity. It's _our_ job to wake them up."

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Cloud suddenly screamed at the man, a vein in his head sticking out. His eyes bulged - his brow frowned furiously. His skin felt hotter than ever and all he wanted to do was hurt something to make it all feel better.

"Than what _shall_ I call you?"

"YOU CALL ME BY MY NAME!" He screamed, his voice was thunderous even to his own ears.

"Which is…"

"SEPHIRO-

The last word shot out of his mouth and than hung in the empty silence of the room incomplete - like a bullet that had been shot underwater. Cloud stared dreamily at the floor, his mouth still hanging open from the unfinished word he had tried to say.

The man only sat there, looking as if he'd expected everything to play out like it had the whole time.

"You hate them, Neodeity. You hate the people."

Cloud only continued staring at the floor, not moving an inch.

"You went into seclusion for twenty years. _Twenty years_! That's longer than half my life! And _you_ spent it alone. Away from _them_. Away from the scum that has spread itself all over this planet. You went away because you were waiting. Waiting for us to grow as strong and big as them. Waiting for our power to become so large, it was worthy enough of your… guidance."

The man waited for Cloud to answer, but he still did not speak or move from the spot he was in. His eyes looked like he was a million miles away.

"We've grown, Neodeity. You'd be surprised at how much we've grown. In fact… yes. When I first asked you if you had any questions, do you remember your response?"

Nothing from Cloud.

"You said the name of a woman."

At this, Clouds eyes grew slightly wider.

"She's one of us, Neodeity. You're 'Tifa'? She is one of our greatest allies."

Finally, Cloud lifted his head to meet the mans eyes, which were on him as constant as the stars in the sky.

"That's right. All your old friends will eventually see what she has seen. They'll see that this planet is in major trouble - that it needs a _serious_ change. _We're_ the change! _We're_ the ones who will be saved when they return!"

Cloud frowned at him. The man nodded as if he'd realized he'd gotten ahead of himself.

"Neodeity… this planet was claimed in the name of another, many years ago. We do not belong on it. We are the bastard children of a failed war - the byproduct of a messy accident that should have never happened. Our race as we know it is fundamentally flawed in the sense that each one of us believes we're the most important thing in the universe, when, in fact, we are NOTHING! We should not even BE! _This_ planet… belongs to Jenova."

Cloud grimaced at the mention of that name, yet he still said nothing.

"That's right. We're living on borrowed ground, Neodeity. _I _know it. _Sephiroth _knew it. Now _you_ know it, and eventually we will make the whole _world_ know it. Because that is the only path to redemption."

The man finally got off his chair and began making his way towards Cloud.

"Jenova's race will come for her. And when they do, only those of us who have repented will be saved. Only us, Neodeity. Only _us_."

The man hooked his arm around Cloud's shoulder. Cloud could smell the man, he smelled like… cheap cologne. Or was that himself he was smelling?

"We don't know exactly when, but we have our ideas. We have scientists working around the clock, trying to decipher all the clues and notes that our lord left us in his short time. _He _knew all… he was so wise… so _powerful_."

The man seemed to fade out for a moment before turning to Cloud and smiling.

"But _you_. _You_ were the one that beat him. The one that was so much _more_ wise and powerful that you managed to dethrone a God! But now, don't you see why you were able to do so? It wasn't so you could go into hiding for the rest of your days, Neodeity. It was so you could re_place_ him!"

Cloud shot his head over at the man and squinted. He still couldn't find any words to say. His head felt like it was a millions pounds. His eyes hurt. His throat was dry and unresponsive. The headache he had had earlier grew with each pulsating blast of pain.

"You still need convincing? Neodeity… you've been being called here, have you not?"

Cloud looked puzzled at this.

"Have you not heard the voice?"

_"Cloud."_

Cloud stared at him, his mouth falling slightly agape.

"Surely, it's been calling you. Surely, it's grown stronger and more frequent as you've come closer home, has it not?"

"_Cloud."_

The voice in Cloud's head _was_ much louder and clearer. If before it was like hearing someone call him from a far away dream world, now it was like someone was practically shouting in his ear. The voice was so clear. The voice, which he had believed to be Aeris for the last two months he'd been hearing it, was now so clear he could practically reach out and touch it. That voice that was warm and soothing and soft and beautiful. That voice that had made him feel good, but sometimes made him feel crazy. The voice that even came to him and haunted him in his dreams - like some beautiful ghost that lived in his heart. It was _here_. Somewhere in this god-forsaken mountain it was _here_.

Cloud turned his head sharply towards the door at the end of the room, which he hadn't even noticed until that very moment. He stared at it for a moment before looking back at the red-robed man who hung on his shoulder. This close, Cloud could see the mans dark-brown eyes shine from the light ahead of them.

"Go ahead. You're not a prisoner here, Neodeity. You're here to be free."

Cloud gave him a distrusting look before he slipped out from under his arm and began walking towards the door. The man simply stood there and smiled. Cloud gave him one last look before shoving the door open and stepping out into a rock hallway.

_"Cloud!"_

He could hear the voice better than ever now. It was… coming from somewhere… down the hall. His feet were carrying him before his brain even registered which way to go. As he moved on, his legs started to feel weak, but they pushed as hard as they ever had. He was going to get to the voice. He was _finally_ going to make it end.

_Aeris… I'm coming._

_---_

Outside the mountain, high in the sky above, a black cloud began moving towards the highest peak of Mt. Nibel. Simultaneously, dark clouds began moving over every major city and town on the entire planet, but the darkest one of all hung over the mountain. The people did not realize it now, but the planet was reacting. Reacting to something terrible that was about to take place. Something bad would happen… and the rain would fall.

---

Cloud kept pushing his way down the hall - his hands now groping at the sides of it for support. Every step he took he seemed to feel more and more rejuvenated. And eveyr step he took, the voice grew louder and louder. It called to him practically every second now.

_"Cloud."_

_Aeris, I'm trying._

Up ahead, the hall make a sharp cut right, and something inside of him just _knew_ that that was where the voice was coming from.

He rushed to it as fast and as hard as he could and made the turn… and then was hit with the worst feeling of déjà vu he had ever had.

There was a door. It was long, metal, and perhaps the most intimidating door Cloud Strife had ever seen. He stood before it in awe, arms dropped lazily to his sides, mouth slightly agape. His eyes were burning holes through the middle of the giant door - no, _gate_ was a more appropriate term for what this beast was. Because behind it was something deadly, and dangerous - but it was also everything Cloud had been looking for almost the entire last twenty years of his life. He couldn't remember how he came to be standing before it, nor could he remember why exactly he wanted to pry his way inside of it so bad in the first place. He slowly raised a cautious, outstretched hand to the face of the metal structure. His bare palm made contact with it. It was ice cold, but it somehow made him feel warm inside. He listened as hard as he ever had, but could hear nothing from the other side.

When suddenly, like an answer to his yearning ears, the voice came.

_"Cloud."_

The voice.

The voice he loved. The voice he knew. The voice he wished he could see. It was everything that kept him sane, and at the same time - the sole reason he was crazy. It was her… it had to be. The flower girl. _His_ flower girl. Only _her_ voice could be so sweet and smooth and perfect and real. And he knew that if he could only ever reach her… reach the voice, everything in his head would become right again. His disease would just… go away. Everyone that had grown such a hatred for him in their hearts would forgot about it. Would forget about all the mistakes he made. Forget almost entirely about the man himself. But then, like a holy spirit, he would return - and they would welcome him back with open arms, and every good memory anyone ever had about him would be shared throughout the entire population. One mind, connected by the sheer love that radiated so powerfully within each separate one.

He was to be… almost God-like.

And now, here he was. Seconds away from opening that magic door to freedom, and he was more scared than he had ever been before. His hand began to tremble on top the steel frame. His heart was skipping beats as randomly as a case of the hiccups. This was it.

_Aeris… I'm coming._

_"Cloud?"_

_Aeris?_

_"Cloud…"_

He shoved the door open with everything he had.

It swung back on its hinges.

Cloud Strife stumbled into the room, feeling like his heart was about to explode, but only if his head couldn't beat it to it.

He saw what was in the room.

He fell to his knees as tears swelled in his eyes.

Before him _was_ something from his past, but it was _not_ a flower girl. It was the giant, bizarre casing of Jenova that had once resided in the Mako reactor near this very mountain. Now it was here. Now it loomed over him, glowing a soft blue off its chrome surface. Something was beneath that casing… something that moved and squirmed.

The remains of Jenova.

Cloud shook his head in disbelief before burying his face in his hands. Tears slipped through his finger cracks. He wept. He wept harder and worse than he'd ever had in his entire life.

Behind him, the man in the red robe stood with his arms folded across his chest, still wearing that cocky smirk.

"Now do you understand… Neodeity?"

Cloud pulled his hands away from his face and stared down at them. They trembled and shook violently beneath his hunched-over body. He saw tears dropping down onto them from his eyes. He lifted his head to stare at the statue-like casing of Jenova. And now Cloud, who hadn't been able to utter a word since he'd made the foolish mistake of calling himself by the wrong name, found a word inside his head that he _desperately _wanted to say.

As he knelt before the remains of Jenova, staring up at it with tears still flowing down the sides of his cheeks, he uttered one word.

"…Mother."

---


	18. With Asmodai Part I

Asmodai lurching his way through the tunnels of Mount Nibel looked like something straight out of a horror movie. He drunkenly made his way around the twists and curves of the halls, occasionally slamming his side into a wall and letting out a high-pitched noise that was reminiscent of a cat's shriek. As he went, strange words and phrases were slipping through his clenched teeth like gas escaping a well-sealed tank. His black eyes darted side-to-side, endlessly scanning for nothing. His fists clenched and unclenched rhythmically. His breath was hot and came in short bursts that painted the air around him with the lingering stink of expired food and rotted teeth. Frequently, he would giggle to himself - a giggle that contradicted everything about him, one that was soft and pure and might be heard at a school playground during recess. Asmodai was angry and confused. Asmodai was also excited and eager. But most of all - Asmodai was insane.

_Oh that whore. _He thought to himself. _She dares to make me feel the pain? She dares to betray me after I gave her my love? My… my LOVE!!? No… maybe not my love. But my time, yes, my time. And that might be more important. Wasn't it He who said: "Time is more important than love."? Yes, it was He who said it. It was Asmodai! _

The hunched over thing laughed heartily at this thought, to which a black-robe who was several tunnels away stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the insane noise that drifted down the hall.

At the end of his laugh, Asmodai began a nasty coughing fit - one which ended with him spewing out a thick, black liquid into his cupped hands. He made a low gurgling sound in his throat to clear out any residue, and then proceeded to hock a giant black and green and white ball of snot at the floor. He looked down at it as he made his way past and couldn't help another laugh that slipped through his teeth.

_Heh-heh-heh… yes, it would have been lovely to take you down _there_ my dear. Oh how we would have had fun down _there_. Down there by the banks of the endless river of life. Deep, deep, deep down under the mountain where only the bravest of brave go, and only the strongest of strong return. How you would have loved sitting on a rock, looking at the river with me. Staring into the black abyss that once was white and green and pretty but has now turned black and thick and slimy. Oh yes, some say it's been rotted, but I say it's been ripened! HAHAHA! You would have loved to hear that one, yes, I think you would have. Maybe you'll still see… after they've changed you. Will it be the same? Will you still talk to me like you used to? Wait… no! NO NO NO! Not like that, _that_ was a lie! All lies, in fact. You are the deceiver, but now they'll fix you right my love. They'll make you pure again just like they did to your mother. _

Asmodai put one trembling hand up to his cheek and touched it. The skin on his face felt dead and fake. A whiny sound came out of his throat and he clenched his teeth even tighter together.

_Why did you have to hurt me, my love!? Why!? Was it because _I _wanted to hurt _him?_ I think that was it dear. I think you love _him_ dear. Not _me _dear. We can't have that. Didn't you think it was funny though? How I came to him and I put on that little show. "Daddy! DADDY!" HAHAHA! No luck kid, daddies gone and soon you'll be too. Even if they change you, I'll make sure you'll go away too. I'll shove you into the endless river that once was white and green and pretty, but has now turned black and thick and slimy. Oh yes. You'll smother before you drown. The lifestream will clog up your throat and your nose and your eyes and your ears. Then you'll know what it's like to be dead. You'll know what it's like long before your body dies. HAHAHA! Yes, I like that idea quite a bit._

Names weren't important to Asmodai anymore, so he didn't bother to remember them. The woman he spoke of who had "deceived" him and then hurt him was Marlene. The one he believed she loved and now he wanted to kill was Teioh. Even his own name (his real name) he had forgotten, for he wasn't always crazy, unstable Asmodai. Once - longer than he cared to, or _could_, remember - he was Allen. He was Allen long before the cult came to him; long before the experiments they performed on him; long before a guy named Allen ceased to exist, and the _thing_ named Asmodai replaced him. A thing that was now long gone off the deep end and was more monster than man. He didn't even believe he was, or ever had been, a human. His thoughts were random and dangerous, causing him to always live his life from one crazy obsession to the next. A month ago it had been rocks. He studied the shape and size of them, the sound they made when they were thrown at all different lengths, the color of them, the _taste_ of them. It had been an obscure and queer obsession, but it was not much of a dangerous one. His _current_ obsession, however, was Marlene - and he was determined (at least for the time being) to make her his, for she had come to him in the short time she was playing along with the cult and actually spoken to the horrible creature.

_Imagine that, _Asmodai thought when she had first stopped in front of him in the hall and introduced herself. _This human speaks to Asmodai willingly… this human must… must _love_ Asmodai. _

And so the obsession began, and would not end until something else caught his attention, or he himself ended it in _his_ way - which even _he_ wasn't sure how that was.

Now Asmodai lurched through the tunnels of the mountain, half insane, half obsessed, and he was determined to make everyone and _any_one pay that stood between him and his love.

_Yes, my love. You will be changed. Just like I was, for even the great Asmodai was confused once… so long ago that what he was confused about has been forgotten, but confused he was nevertheless. They'll put the black stuff in your veins, and it will wrap and coil around them until it reaches your heart - THEN we'll see what you think of Asmodai. THEN we'll see how you feel about him, indeed. Maybe you will be given a gift, like I have! Wouldn't that be wonderful dear? For the lifestream has many powers - some known, some not - and you will feel most of them inside you when it comes. The lifestream changed me, I remember that much, and it gave me power that none other on this planet posses. Oh yes. The best. Only _Asmodai _posses - the power in my chest! HAHAHA! The lifestream knows, dear. It knows what the heart wants, and it _SHOWS_ what the heart wants. It will make me the one you love the most. It will make me someone from long ago whose been secret and forgotten in the deepest depths of your heart. Because the lifestream knows, dear. It knows and shows, and soon enough _you'll_ know, and we shall bathe in the all-powerful knowledge of the lifestream together. Forever. _

Asmodai giggled at that thought and turned a corner. Around it was a door, and behind that was his love - probably in the process of being changed right at that moment. He grinned at that belief: a dark, crazy grin that was the mask for a thousand insane thoughts.

That's when he heard the sound of chains rustling about. He sharply cocked his head towards the direction the sound had traveled from, which was just down the hall to his left. He studied that path hard for a moment, his beady, black eyes locked in a relentless stare, his thick and puss-filled nostrils flaring rhythmically. He looked like some insane dog that had crept out of the bowels of hell and was hot on the trail of an injured angel.

The noise came again - a soft, jingling sort of sound.

A low grunt leaped from his mouth as he heard it, and suddenly, he was heading in the direction of the noise in quick steps.

_Whose that dear? _He thought as he went. _Is that a bad man coming to stop you from changing? Who could it be my love? Who would want to stop you from becoming perfect? _

He jogged (if it could be called jogging) down the hall a bit quicker, eager - almost _hungry_ - to reach the source of the noise. His movements were sluggish and filled with a clumsiness that came with years of derangement, but alas, they were determined movements, and soon enough he was standing in the room that birthed the peculiar 'clink-clank' sound. Only now, the noise was accompanied by a chorus of whispers that sounded like they were trapped inside the walls. On a look around the room he was in, Asmodai decided he was wrong - not the walls they came from, but the ground. He stood in the upper room of the feeding pit, and saw The Descender had been already lowered by its chains deep into the mountains belly. Yet the chains were the source of the sound he heard and was still hearing. Three of them stood almost completely still to the fools eye, but Asmodai had no fools eye. He could see the subtle movements in them: the subtle movements that gently jerked them up against the ground and caused the slightest little jingling sound - a noise that would be lost on the fools ear, but Asmodai had no fools ear. The whispers were getting nearer to. Asmodai took another second of listening to confirm this, and when he was certain he was correct, he moved over to a crate in the corner of the room and bent low behind it. The sluggish, almost infant-like movements he had in the hall had been completely erased. He was focused now, and a focused Asmodai could move as quietly and swiftly as the wind itself.

As he poked one half of his slimy, dead-looking face around the corner of the crate, he was sure to stay hidden in its shadow. Although, after all, it didn't really matter if they saw him. They wouldn't actually see _him_, but they _would_ see something.

_Oh yes… they'd see _something_ alright. The lifestream knows. And it shows._

One by one, Asmodai watched them come crawling out - like ants from an ant hole. The first three, the women, had once been associates to their party - but now, it seemed (and Asmodai began to wonder if _all_ women were this way) that they had betrayed them. No problems there: three more ants to squash under his boot. The last two were unfamiliar to Asmodai - a dark-skinned kid and a pudgy one who looked about as red as an Ifrit's tail and who rained sweat from his chubby face. No problems there either: two little ants to fry under the magnifying glass - one of whom looked to surely be easy pickings.

_Yes, pick off the fat one first. Quite smart, old Asmodai. All five may be a problem, but if one can fall behind - the rest shall fall to. The girls won't be a problem… unless… no. Are these the ones? The ones who had been given the lifestream the same as Asmodai? No, no, no. Can't be. They don't look changed. They don't look… _ripe_ yet. Heh, ripe. What a perfect word for a PERFECT condition. Maybe they shan't be squished or burned up. Maybe they should be changed. Be _ripened. _For we all know if your not ripe, your going to go rotten. HAHAHA! Write it down Asmodai, write down the word of He._

The little party of ants cautiously made their way out of the room, and Asmodai followed. Surely, he believed, they'd be headed to his dear love's room, and he was right. They turned the corner and crept towards the door at the end of hall like a couple of ROTTEN ANTS.

_Oh, they'll fry. _Asmodai thought to himself, pulling out a small blade that was beneath his belt and quickening his pace. The pudgy one was at the end of their line - how perfect. _They can't be ripened. They must be rotten already, for they are trying to put an end to perfection. That can't be allowed, no, it can not. I'll fry 'em. No! Squish 'em! NO! Better yet… I'll cut them up and let them bleed out real slow and easy - a fitting death for a couple of rotten ants. They might see me after I end their friend, but I'll pretend, oh I'll pretend. For all my foes, will be dead in rows, for the lifestream knows - it knows and shows._

_--- _


	19. Injection

The hospital-like room was oddly silent. The only noise Teioh could hear was his own rapid breath, which seemed to quicken as the seconds passed, and the low, constant rumble of the machine in the far corner. The one that they had started up a few moments ago - 'they' being the three white-robes that were acting as doctors - and had silently went to and drawn a strange, black fluid from a nozzle that seeped into a pair of syringes. Teioh watched the black stuff be squeezed out of those nozzles like toothpaste. It looked thick and not very healthy - not the kind of stuff that would normally go into a syringe: but then again, nothing here seemed normal. Everything seemed to be a bit off center, like a piano with every key slightly out of tune. Now the room had grown silent, and Teioh felt hot beads of sweat crawling down his neck. It didn't help that directly across from him, Marlene was stuck in the exact same position, and if anything - she looked worse. He saw her fingers gripping and releasing the arms of the chair she was strapped into. He also saw her swallowing and blinking far too frequently, like a child awaiting punishment. He wondered then if there was something she knew that he did not, and it scared the hell out of him. Regardless of his fright, he didn't bother focusing on it. At the moment, all he wanted to do was to go to her - comfort her, and tell her everything was going to be fine. But of course, he could not. Both because he couldn't physically get out of the chair he was in, as well as he honestly didn't know if everything _was_ going to be fine. That was the thought that was feeding his fear more than anything. The not-knowing. It was like staring into a black abyss that he knew he was going to have to jump into, and all he wanted was a little light to break a line through the dark.

"Marlene." He whispered, and not intentionally. His throat had gone dry, and his voice had to fight its way through.

She looked up at him, and when her big, hopeless eyes met his, everything in him started working again. The fear had almost smothered all rational thinking, but now he had it back, and he realized he had to at least try to get them out of here. He owed himself that much. More so, he owed _her_ that much.

With a war-cry, he began ripping at the leather straps around his arms again. He continued to grunt and shout and pull and tear, even as the straps firmly held their ground. As his sweat-slicked arms slid around beneath them, the leather squeaked a high-pitched, mousy sound that was a taunting 'nice-try'.

"Teioh, stop." Marlene called over to him.

He ignored her and kept furiously pulling at his limbs. He'd rip them off before he gave up again. The choice wasn't his though.

The three white-robes rushed over - two of them flanking to his sides and getting a hold of his shoulders. The third got a strong grip on his throat and shoved his head back. He kept fighting them.

The irony of the situation - and he only realized it when he glanced down at his arm to see if the strap had given him any leeway (it hadn't) - was that as he struggled with them more and more furiously, his veins had popped out all over his body. It was as if he'd drawn them a road-map of his body with the best 'insert-needle-here' spots marked out. This realization didn't stop him from fighting though. He fought and fought, even as the white-robe leaned in close to his face and jabbed the needle into his throat.

Teioh clenched his teeth and began shooting rapid bursts of air though them. His eyes watched as the man began to descend the plunger, and beyond that, over the mans shoulder, he saw Marlene. His eyes lock on hers, and he decided to focus on them instead of the needle as the white-robe pushed every ounce of black stuff into his body.

All at once the three white-robes backed off, and Teioh's body went limp. He felt his muscles thanking him for giving up as his head slapped against the back of the chair and he began to catch his breath. He still had his eyes on Marlene, and as he watched her and felt his consciousness draining out, he felt something wet fall down his cheek. He couldn't be sure if it was a tear or a bead of sweat. He tried to say "I'm sorry" but his throat didn't work, and his lips were barely better than that. His arm reflexively tugged at the straps once more before he fell unconscious and went limp in the chair like a deflated balloon.

---

Marlene's eyes darted between the three white-robes that now approached her. She thought for a moment to try a wild fit of rage in attempt to escape the chair, but the image of Teioh giving everything he had to get out and not being able to quickly changed her mind. He'd fought - honorably - and he had lost. They had put the lifestream inside of him, and now it was up to him to fight it back out. Teioh was strong, he'd be able to - she knew it. Herself, on the other hand, she wasn't so sure of. The lifestream did things to you. Things you only had the slightest bit of control over. What had Asmodai told her? It knows what you want and… something else. She'd be damned if she could remember with all the incoherent rambling he did. She had understood though. The lifestream… it was somehow connected to emotions and thoughts and wants. It's why, so she thought, the whole thing had run black. It was all the negative energy, emotion, thoughts and wants that filled this place up to the brim. The lifestream somehow knew (_felt_) it. Now she would feel it. And she would fight it: like Teioh.

So when the men approached her, she put up no struggle. She simply took a deep breath and waited.

That's when the noises started outside the door. First, a shriek - it sounded like a girl's scream to Marlene. Then shuffling around. _Then_ men's voices. More bangs and shuffling. Then… (_wait.)_

Those voices. She _knew_ them! It took her a moment to place them, but when she heard one of them again, she nailed it. Loeb! And Putter too! She felt her entire body come to life as if had just woken up from a long nap. She was just about to cry out to them when she felt a meaty hand clamp down over her mouth.

One of the white-robes had gotten behind her chair, the other two had rushed over to both sides of the door and flattened themselves against the wall. They both now held foot-long daggers that they had undoubtedly pulled from beneath their white robes. The shiny steel shot bright lines of light off their reflection.

Marlene let out a muffled cry as she realized the soon-to-be fate of her friends if they walked through that door. The man behind her yanked her head backwards when she did this, causing the back of her head to slam against the chair. In another second she felt something sharp being gently pressed against her now vulnerably-stretched neck, and it didn't take much to realize that it was another of those daggers.

She watched in horror, now helpless to do anything about it, as the door to the room opened and the men on either side got into attack positions.

But the door to the room didn't just open, it _slammed_ open, and from behind it came Loeb - stumbling in backwards, and seeming to be fighting someone. When he tripped and landed on his back, she could see he _was_ fighting someone; Asmodai, who now pounced down on his foe, a long dagger held high in his hands and ready to be thrust down into Loeb's chest. Loeb caught the thing by its elbows and held him off a foot above himself. Asmodai looked insane with rage and was grinding his teeth together behind a wicked smile.

The two white-robes at the doors sides were stunned. Luckily, before they got un-stunned, Putter came through the door along with a strange girl Marlene had never seen before. She was a bit taller than Putter, and had straight, black hair that came down only to her chin.

The two of them rushed in almost side-by-side, but as they did, the shine from the blades must have caught their attention from their peripheral view, as they turned to see the white-robes flanking them.

The one near Putter came to life, taking a long, arcing swipe at his chest. Putter had just enough time to take a surprised step backwards. The white-robe didn't waste any time. He leapt towards Putter with a diagonal slash, and this time the blade skimmed his chest before he took his back-step, and he immediately felt a warm line of blood form above his stomach. He grabbed at the spot, and as he did, the white-robe came jumping at him again - dagger held high in a death-strike pose. Just as he landed though, his downward momentum came to a dead stop. The woman who'd entered with Putter had thrust the heel of her boot into the bottom of the white-robes chin in a high-kick. The collision was brutal, sending the man instantly to the ground unconscious.

Marlene looked at him. For the first time since maybe she had gotten here, she was looking at a robed man with his hood off. The mans face lay motionless and blank atop a pillow of white cloth, and as she looked at it, some of the fear she felt from these people vanished. It was just a regular guy - no different from the dozens that were in the rebellion with her. Just another face on another soldier fighting another war… maybe she would of thought deeper into it on different circumstances, but in _this_ room, there was no time to think.

The white-robe, who had been on the opposite side of the door from the first, had been knocked down and out only seconds before the mysterious girl had taken care of his friend. Whoever this person was, Marlene decided, she could fight. Now the man behind her released his hold on her and took up a defensive stance as he circled around to the front of the chair - the dagger held out before him at a slight angle.

To her right, she saw Loeb locked in a power struggle with Asmodai - only she didn't _see_ Asmodai, she just _knew_ it was him. To her what actually was there was Loeb, fending off someone she thought she'd forgotten about. Someone from years back that had broken her heart and more importantly betrayed her trust. A guy who used to be a rebel, but now wore Shinra garb.

_"For us Marlene. For all of us."_

She saw Denzel, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Why would a backstabbing, piece-of-trash like him be shown to her. Asmodai… he said you see what you _want_ to, but… she didn't want to see _this._

_Right?_

Loeb flipped Denzel (_Asmodai._) off to his right, carefully dodging the wildly-swung dagger that went with him. He leapt to his feet just in time to see Denzel (_Asmodai!_) grabbing the legs of a nearby table and yanking them towards his body and swinging it around him. Loeb hopped the table as Asmodai swung it beneath him. It crashed into the chair Marlene was in and cracked. Before he could get another idea, Loeb bent over, yanked his body upwards by his shirt collar, and drove a hard right jab into his nose. Asmodai fell limp to the floor, a thick red line trailing from his nose down the side of his face.

Now the only standing foe was the white-robe to Marlene's right, who was slowly making his way towards the far side of the room. Loeb now met up with the Putter and the girl in the center of the room and the three of them faced him. The robed mans line of sight drifted between the trio.

"For Neodeity." He suddenly said in a low voice and stood fully erect. He flipped the dagger around in his hands and swung it out in front of himself.

"Wait!" Loeb called out and took a step towards the man.

It was too late, the robed-man thrust the blade into his own stomach with such a force that Marlene recoiled a bit in the chair. He stood frozen in time for a moment - a statue of an insane man who believed he was a martyr - and then he began to tip forward like a falling tree. Marlene caught a brief glimpse of the mans face as he was going down, and what she saw terrified her. On his face was a smile. Marlene grimaced at the expression, but instantly had a thought that eased the terror. The white-robe hit the ground. The white-robe was dead. The man inside was free. Maybe _that_ was worth smiling over.

Loeb and Putter were suddenly at her sides, and she found _herself_ smiling. Loeb reached up and put a hand on her shoulder and grinned.

"Good to see ya lady." He said, laughing a bit. They got her out of the chair, and when she stood, they came together like magnets. Putter, Loeb and herself locked into a three way hug that felt better than better. Over Putter's broad shoulder she saw the mysterious girl moving to Teioh.

"Wait." Marlene called to her. They dissembled their hug and broke into a line facing her.

"It's OK, she's with us." Putter said as he put a hand on Marlene's shoulder.

"What's wrong with Teioh?" Loeb asked with a serious tone, now noticing that he was unconscious in the chair.

Marlene walked over to him. Putter and Loeb followed after sharing a concerned look.

"The injected him." She said, kneeling before him and putting her hands on his legs.

"_Injected_?" Loeb repeated angrily. "What the hell does that mean!?"

"Relax Loeb, it wasn't a lethal injection. They gave him lifestream."

"Lifestream…" Putter whispered as he stared down at Teioh.

"What does _that_ do?" Loeb questioned.

Marlene glanced back over her shoulder at him with a face he read as 'Nothing good'.

"But he'll be OK?" Putter asked.

"It's up to him." Marlene answered. "He's got to fight it."

"I thought lifestream was supposed to be a good thing."

"Not here it's not. Look for yourself." She said and nodded towards something behind Loeb and Putter. They traced her eyes and saw a syringe lying on the floor. It was filled to the top with something black.

"They put that in him!?" Putter cried out.

"He'll be fine. He just needs… time."

"Hate to break it to ya Marlene," Loeb began. "But Time isn't something we've exactly _got_."

Somewhere in the universe, there must have been a god of some sort. One who played mean tricks on people for his own amusement, because at just that moment - as if on _cue _- the door to the room burst open. Tifa stood in the doorway.

"Leney?" She said to Marlene and began moving towards her. "You've been very bad."

Marlene saw the crazy look in her eye, and just as she was about to stand up, that mean god must have been at it again. Teioh woke up. And Teioh looked just as crazy.

---


	20. Cloud and Tifa

"It was just a dream."

Cloud looked over at Tifa. She was happily swinging her legs back and forth - the momentum carrying her in long arcs on the swing-set she sat in.

"What did you say?" He asked her, and for some reason he was surprised at the sound of his own voice. It sounded… young.

"I saaaid," She began, her voice just as young. "That we should go play over there." She nodded towards someplace to his left.

He now took notice of his surroundings. The sky was yellow, and not the yellow glow of a setting sun either. It was a diseased yellow, and it stretched on forever and ever in every direction. Sickly-looking purple clouds dotted it with no pattern, and a strong but silent wind was pushing them. Pushing them in the direction Tifa had nodded. They sat in a field, and to Cloud it looked like it had seen war. Lots of war. Craters dotted it, broken bits of wood and glass and white stuff (_bones_) were strewn about. Everything here seemed to be dead or dying - except, of course, for the swing set that he and Tifa sat on together. It was a little rusty, a little old and squeaky, but it was holding together just fine. It was a good thing too, Tifa was having the time of her life swinging away on it. Cloud watched her go way up high in front of him, and for a moment she was suspended in air (_time_), that brilliantly yellow and purple sky painting the background for her. Then she would come swooping back down, the fresh air smacking Cloud in the face, and head back up the other way. She was young. Just a kid in fact. And as he looked down at his hands, he saw that he was too.

"Tifa!" He called out excitedly. "I'm a boy again!"

She swooped by him going forwards and smiled at him as she did. He was about to say something to her as she went up, but was distracted by how beautiful she really was. The sky… the clouds… they were dieing, but when Tifa flew up there on her swing… they came back to life. His heart felt funny in his chest as he watched her. She went up. She came down. It was so simple but… so incredible.

"Tifa…" He managed to whisper through his suddenly-dry throat. His eyes were wide and awestruck. "Come back down."

She was up in front of him, and now the swing had stopped moving. A yellow sky. A purple cloud. Tifa. They had become one thing now.

"Tifa… you're going to fall."

"Let's go play over there Cloud." She answered him, still suspended high above.

"Where?" He said as he turned his head to the left to see what she was gesturing towards.

Before him was a brilliant forest. High oak trees formed a solid wall, like soldiers standing in a military line. But right in the middle of them, directly in front of Cloud, was a gap. The tree on either side of it made up the gates, their thick branches dipped down, almost _pointed_ to a path that was formed of flattened grass and stones that lined the sides. He looked into the path. There were flowers and streams and trees. Lots of trees. His eyes exploded with all the vibrant patterns of greens and blues. He looked deeper. The path twisted and turned, but somehow his eyes followed it. It went around a bend and then down a short slope. It passed beneath a mighty oak that had fallen and lay like a limbo bar above the sunken land. It came back up, twisted around a large tree and then hopped into a stream. No… not into the stream, _onto _it. A large gray stone continued the path, a series of them, in fact, that dotted their way across the short length of the stream. It continued, possibly for miles, and Cloud's eyes followed it the whole way.

"Let's play in there."

Tifa's voice grabbed him - possibly _saved_ him from an eternity of watching - away from him focus. He took a deep breath and blinked as he shook his head. The forest was just a forest again, and when the path took a little curve a few feet in, Cloud could see no more of it.

"Tifa I don't think we should." He said to her with concern. "It doesn't seem to end…"

"It'll end." Her voice floated down to him from her place up high.

He turned to argue with her but when he looked for her, all he saw was the swing - still suspended high in the air, but with no Tifa on it. He stared at it for a moment before it suddenly came swing down. It's momentum, however, did not carry it back up the other side. It simply came to a dead stop directly in the center of the swing set. Behind it, Cloud saw those purple clouds moving faster towards him, and the sound of the wind was growing louder. It stung his face and made him squint.

"Tifa?" He said softly.

Just as he did, he heard a girls giggle from behind him. He darted his head back towards the forest, and sure enough, there she was. Tifa stood next to one of the big tall oaks that made up the 'gates' to the pathway. She was grinning and waving for him to come on. She looked liked an angel.

"Teef…" He said to himself and hopped off the swing. He did not hit the ground immediately, however. In fact, the ground was actually quite far away. His feet finally dug into the soft soil beneath him a few seconds later, and the impact made him crouch down till he was practically sitting. He looked up astounded and saw the swings hanging twenty feet above him. The purple clouds above them were whizzing by now at furious speeds.

"Don't get knocked over by the wind Cloud!" Tifa called to him and cupped her hands over her mouth to hold in a giggle.

Cloud actually _did_ almost get knocked over, but managed to plant his foot to keep his balance. He grinned over at Tifa to try and hide his embarrassment. She grinned back and then frantically waved her arms for him to hurry up. He laughed and began running towards her.

_Cloud._

He slowed down and looked over his shoulder. No one there but he could have swore he heard-

_Don't go in there Cloud._

A different voice - this time coming from his left. He shot a look that way but found nothing.

_Pwease Cwoudy. Don't pway in dere._

He looked over to his right towards this voice but once again - nothing.

_Don't go. Stay with us. Play with us not them They're bad they want you to gocloudtheywantyotogotoabadplace_

"STOP!" He screamed and cupped his hands over his ears. All at once they completely stopped and the only sound was once again the ever-moving, ever-_pushing_, wind.

"Cloud…"

Cloud spun around, knowing he wasn't going to see anyone behind him, but this time he did. On the swing that he had just left there was a little girl gently rocking back and forth. She had red hair and a pink dress, and behind one ear she had a flower tucked away.

"Don't go." She said.

He squinted at her. She was familiar. He began to take a step towards her, but Tifa's voice came falling over his shoulder.

"Come on Cloud! I'm real! I'm alive! I won't wait all day!"

Cloud bit his lip and looked at the girl on the swing. She looked… sad. He gave her an apologetic shrug and waved at her before he turned around and rushed off to meet up with Tifa.

"About time." She said to him as he arrived. She reached out and took both his hands in hers. He looked down at that and then up at her. She was smiling and walking backwards into the forest.

"Tifa?"

"Yes." She answered, still walking backwards. They were almost through the 'gates' of the trees now.

"What did you _really_ say before?"

She stopped walking, but kept smiling. She stared at him for a moment. A long moment. Then she pulled herself close to him by his hands and leaned in next to his face. She whispered, and when she did the warm air on his ear sent a shiver down his spine.

"I'll never tell."

---

--

---

Cloud jolted to an upright position. He shot a hand up to his face and felt sweat coming down his forehead in bucket loads. He then pulled his hand away from his face and looked at it, half-expecting to see a child's hand. He did not. It was his own - used and worn.

He shifted his weight around as his breath gradually slowed. He was on a bed in a very dark room. A burning candle on a wooden crate beside the bed was the rooms only light. The flame danced, and when it did it made the whole room dance. Very quiet in the room… _very_ quiet. His own heavy breathing was the sole noise. He threw the covers off himself, meaning to get out of the bed, but when he did he discovered he was completely naked. He quickly pulled the covers back over himself, feeling exposed. He swallowed a hard lump down his throat and tried racking his brain to figure out what the hell was going on.

The door - which he hadn't even known existed in the black of the room until then - at the end of the room opened. A curvy figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the light outside. Cloud raised a hand to shield his eyes from this new source of light and squinted at the figure.

"Tifa?" He asked, and was surprised at the sound of his own voice. It sounded… old.

She said something back, but for some reason Cloud couldn't make it out, and then she was walking towards him, closing the door behind her.

Black overtook the room again. The candle flame danced, and the room danced with it.

Out of the dark side of the room came Tifa. As she neared the bed, the glow from the candle illuminated her more and more until she stood right next to him in full form.

There was a million questions he should have asked right there and then, but none of them surfaced. He was too busy admiring how beautiful she was, or rather, how beautiful she had _stayed_. Here he was an old man looking up at practically the same Tifa from two decades earlier. He felt shame, but mostly, he felt better.

"Is this real?" He asked, looking up at her face as it danced with the candles flame. She smiled and began to slowly sit onto the edge of the bed. Her weight gently shifted the mattress. That much was real at least. "Tifa. I'm going to need you to answer me because, quite frankly, I don't know what's a dream and what's reality anymore."

"This is real Cloud." She finally said, taking his hand in hers and moving it towards her. "_I'm_ real." She placed his hand on her body. He looked down at it then up at her distrustfully. Then she smiled, and everything seemed to right to be wrong.

"Tifa." He said with a long sigh of relief. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. Her body was warm against his and he was thankful for it. Her hair smelled wonderful and he was more thankful for that. He said her name again, this time even more relieved. He rubbed his face in her hair and against her neck and thought if this wasn't real, nothing was.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"For what." She whispered back, her hands now rubbing his sides.

"For… leaving."

"Cloud. We're together now. That's what matters. That's _all_ that matters."

"I'm afraid Tifa."

"I know you are."

"I wouldn't tell anyone else."

"I know you wouldn't."

"I think I'm dead."

"No baby. You're here. With me. And I'm gonna make you feel better from now on."

She pulled away from him and he nearly collapsed without her.

"Tifa?"

She ignored his call to her and reached down to the floor and into a bag she had carried into the room. He hadn't even noticed it. A second later she returned, and this time she held something in her hand. He burrowed his brow as the object came into focus. It was a needle. A syringe. And inside was something… dark.

_Don't go in there Cloud._

"What is it?"

"It's something… for the pain." She answered him and handed it to him. He took it in his hands and looked it over.

"Why didn't you give it to me when I was out? Why didn't anyone just stick me yet?"

"Because it's for _you_." She answered and smiled. He stared at her wondering what she meant. "You've got to want it Cloud. It knows. And if you _want_ it… something great will happen. For all of us."

"Something… great?"

"You've got to want it though Cloud." She said. "You've got to _really_ want it."

"Something great?"

"How bad do you… _want_ it?" She asked, and when she said the word 'want', she leaned in close and whispered it in his ear. Her chest pressed against his and her hands fell to his thighs.

"I…" He swallowed hard. "I think…"

"You can't _think_ you want it baby. You've got to _know_."

Her arms now wrapped around his waist and she crawled onto the bed. He slowly lowered himself onto his back on the bed, and she came with him.

"Do you know, Cloud? Do you _know_?"

_Don't go in there._

"I…"

_They want to take you to a bad place._

"Well… I mean."

Tifa kissed his chest.

_Stay with us Cloud._

"Yes." Cloud suddenly stated. Tifa looked up at him and grinned. "I want it."

"Then you're ready to have it."

His eyes locked on hers once more. God she was beautiful. He took a deep breath and then stuck the needle into his arm.

_She looks so sad on that swing set._

He pushed his thumb down. The black stuff slowly emptied into his vein. Tifa watched happily. He took a deep breath when it was all gone, and pulled the needle out. He dropped the syringe next to the floor.

"Did you really want it?" Tifa asked him as she ran her hand through his hair. He stared at her.

"Tifa… what did you say?"

"Hm?"

"When you came in the room. You said something, I didn't hear it."

She smiled.

"I'll never tell."

---

--

---

"Come on Tifa! Tell me!" Cloud begged. Tifa pressed her lips tightly together and shook her head.

She began walking backwards again, leading him into the forest. She had a goofy grin on and he couldn't help but to grin back.

"Do you know where this goes?"

She raised her eyebrows and nodded.

When she got inside the two trees, and she stood inside the forest while he was outside it, she came to a stop and let go of his hands. They fell to his legs.

"What's going on? Chicken out?" He teased.

"I can't pull you in Cloud. You've got to come in on your own. You've got to _want_ to."

"I wanna!" He quickly spit out defensively. "I wanna more than _you_!"

"Then…" She said lowering her head and raising her brow again. She did a quick twirl and began skipping down the pathway.

Cloud swallowed and took a breath. He glanced once more over his shoulder. The swing set with the little girl seemed a million miles away - a dot of right in a world that had gone wrong. The yellow sky looked impatient above. The clouds were moving faster if possible.

"I wanna." He muttered to himself and then chased after Tifa.

"Teef! Wait up, huh!?" He called to her as he high-stepped a patch of grass that made a shortcut around a bend in the path.

"Don't stray from the path Cloud!" She called back and then went out of sight as she slid down a slop in the ground.

He hopped back onto the path, almost afraid of her warning, and was sliding down the slope himself soon enough. He put his right foot out front and let it lead him down the short hill. When he reached the bottom, he was off running again. He ducked the downed tree above the path and then climbed back up to level ground. A couple of runners steps later and he was taking a turn around a big, wide, maple tree that had sap running down it from somewhere up high. As he rounded the turn, he saw Tifa on the other side of a stream waiting with her hands on her hips.

"Come on slowpoke!" She called over to him and gestured him to come.

He rushed to the edge of the stream and looked into it. It was clear as water could be, and he could see the rocky, muddy ground two feet below. '_No problem_' he thought to himself and took the first leap. Both feet landed on the big stone poking out of the stream at the same time, and with the impact he felt a slight shift that made him a bit nervous.

"Don't fall now Cloud. I don't know where this stream will take ya!" She teased him.

He forced a weak-sounding laugh and looked downstream. Amazingly, the water seemed to go on in a straight line forever. It disappeared only when the horizon took over. The image made his head swim, and for a moment he almost lost his balance. He pin wheeled his arms a bit and got it back before quickly hopping over the rest of the way. When he arrived at the other side, Tifa had disappeared again. Cloud grunted angrily and took off running again. The path took a sharp turn, and once more he was buried in trees. The trail was very narrow now, and several times Cloud's arms brushed against a tree or snapped off a twig. It was very twisted and curvy now as well. There was a moment when he even believed that he had just completely turned around, or maybe it was a figure-eight. It was hard to tell when everything looked _exactly_ the same.

"Tifa?" He shouted, beginning to feel uneasy about the whole thing. She did not answer.

Moments later, however, the narrow path finally broke. Now he stood at the edge of a giant lake. He almost ran straight into it, but managed to skid to a halt at the very tip of the water.

"Woah." He whispered to himself as he looked out at it. The thing could have been an ocean! Barely visible to the right and left side of it were some trees, but directly across he couldn't see _anything_. A soft mist was covering it up. He squinted into it to see if he could make out a tree or something, but could not spot a thing. It was then he realized Tifa was gone!

"Tifa!?" He shouted, looking up and down the lakes shoreline. Off to his right and just next to a tree he spotted her boots, each with a sock sticking out of the top of it.

"She disappeared! Knocked right out of her socks!" He said to himself as his eyes widened. Then he heard a splash and looked out at the lake to see Tifa sticking halfway out of the water waving her arms.

"Let's go Cloud! Hurry up already!"

"I don't think we should go any further Tifa!" He yelled out to her.

"We don't have a choice!" Her voice came answering back, and for some reason it made him want to turn around and run. He did turn around. He did _not_ run. He couldn't. The path was gone.

"What the…"

The path had simply upped and took off. It was no where to be seen. He ran up and down the shoreline looking for it, thinking that he may have lost it when he was looking for Tifa, but it was nowhere. Nowhere.

"Tifa!?" He called out in a panic, but when he looked, all he saw was Tifa determinedly making her way out further into the lake. Towards that strange mist. Cloud felt his throat go dry and he had to take a few breaths to calm down. He watched Tifa become a smaller and smaller dot in the lake and that made him even more afraid. He didn't want to be alone in this place. He looked at the lake. It swam with the reflection of purple clouds moving overhead. He shrugged his shoulders, then picked his leg up and ripped off his boot. He did the same thing on the other leg and dove into the lake without even taking his socks off.

The water was surprisingly warm. It felt good on his face when it hit the water. His arms came to life and began strongly carrying him towards Tifa, he had a lot of ground to make up, and this is where he was going to do it. He was a better swimmer than Tifa, that much he knew. Minutes went by and he never dropped a beat. His swimming was particularly good then, and he was grateful for it. Another few minutes went by and he actually began to believe he maybe had passed poor Tifa out. He chuckled in his head at that thought. _Him_ standing on land waiting for _her_ to catch up. Wouldn't _that_ be something.

His arms started feeling heavy. Really heavy. He decided it was time to ease up a bit, so he slowed down. Even going slow though, his arms felt more and more heavy. '_Something's wrong_' he thought to himself as his legs now began to feel like he was moving rubber back there. He noticed something else now. The water that was splashing up and hitting his face felt funny. It was kind of thick, and it when it slid down his cheeks it felt like it was holding on. Like it was alive.

He suddenly wanted out of the water. Bad. His arms came back to full strength as he pushed his way forward with everything he had. But the faster he pushed, the harder it seemed to get anywhere. His legs weren't even working anymore. The thick water… no, not water - _sludge_ - was trying to take him! Trying to take him down deep to the bottomless pit that probably nested underneath this damn lake. He tried calling out to Tifa, but when he did he felt the stuff get into his mouth. It made him gag and choke.

"Please." He managed to sneak out through it all. His swimming had come to a dead halt now, and he was simply floating there helplessly. He saw it now. Saw it for what it was, for what it had probably always been. It was black and slimy and it was _mean_. It grabbed everything on him it could. His legs were snatched from below. His arms wrapped to his body in the stuff. It would pull him down, and when it did he would die. No questions asked.

Suddenly, he felt arms hook underneath his own. Did this lake have arms? No. It was something else. Some_one_. The black stuff fell onto his face and covered his eyes. Something or someone was taking him away. '_WHERE!?_'.

A few seconds later and he could see again. He took deep, hard breaths and his hands instinctively went to his chest. To his heart. He was on land again!

"Wha-… how… wha?" He tried speaking but his breath was going too damn fast and too damn hard.

"I thought you were a good swimmer Cloud? What happened? You need little old Tifa to get in there and save you?" Tifa's voice came teasingly from behind him.

"Tifa!? The lake!? Get away! Get-

He looked out at the lake, and it was just that. A lake - nothing more. No black, sticky stuff jumping out to catch little boys. Nothing. Just water.

"But…" He trailed off.

"Don't worry I won't tell anyone how I had to save you. I know that would be humiliating for you. But only if you hurry up! We're almost there!"

"WHERE!?" He shouted, throwing up his arms.

Tifa only smirked and pointed one finger up at the sky. "Getting dark." She stated and turned to head into the path at the new side of the lake.

Cloud looked up. She was right. The yellow was slowly turning a deep violet color. It was as if those purple clouds were a virus, and the virus was winning. His line of sight fell back to the lake. He couldn't see the other side anymore. The same sort of mist he had seen from over there was now _over there_. He scratched his head and didn't even allow himself to think of it, because if he did, he would have been stuck there scratching for precious seconds that he needed to catch Tifa. He hopped to his feet and headed back into the forest and onto the path, dragging his soggy socks behind him which - if he looked - had some strange, black goo on the bottom of them.

He was running again now. Always chasing, always moving. Why couldn't Tifa just take a break! The path here was similar to it's beginning across the lake. Not too narrow, not too wide. Just right, actually. The land didn't slope much at all, and the turns were far and few. Every once in awhile he would catch a glimpse of Tifa ahead of him, but then she would get around a curve and be lost out of sight again. It made him angry, but that was probably a good thing because it drove him to keep running. And he needed some drive. His legs were beginning to sore and his lungs felt like they wanted to burst. He was hot and tired and his feet hurt from running all this way without his boots. But every time he would consider stopping, he'd catch a glimpse of Tifa and would fight away all his thoughts to try and get to the spot he saw her. Every turn he expected the damn path to end. He even kind of thought that in some crazy way they would wind up back where they started. Back at…

He finally slowed down, and eventually stopped.

"Back at…" He said to himself and scratched his head. He couldn't remember where they had came into this forest. He actually couldn't even remember _why_ they had come. The only thing that seemed clear in his mind was that he needed to reach the end of it.

So he ran again.

Now the sky was dimming down even more. The deep violet had grown deeper and deeper till it was now practically black. No stars up there either. Not even a purple cloud could be picked out of that blackish-violet sea. It was getting harder and harder to see the path, and twice Cloud ran into a tree face-first. It didn't hurt much though, so he didn't bother stopping. He had to keep going. _Had_ to.

Something caught his eye through a thick wall of trees to the right of the path a ways up. Something was glowing. He ran faster now, eager to find out what it was. He took a sharp turn in the path and almost ran right into it.

"Tifa!" He said surprised. She was standing in the middle of the path holding a torch. Her hair and clothes were wet and she was barefoot. "What happened to you? Where'd you get that from?"

"What do you mean what happened to me?" She asked him.

"You're all wet! And your shoes are gone!"

Tifa smiled at him, but it was a troubled smile and he could see she was concerned about something.

"Remember me Cloud. Don't let it take me away."

He frowned at her and grinned.

"You look older Teef."

She smiled that troubled smile again.

"You too. Let's go."

Now they walked side by side, Tifa holding the torch to light their way. All around them was darkness now. Cloud wasn't even sure the trees were still there. He could hear sounds faintly in the distance, but they didn't make much sense to him. It was getting cold too.

"Where are we Tifa?" He asked her as he took a step closer to her and wrapped one arm around her shoulder. She looked up at him, studied his face for a moment, and got a little closer, adjusting her shoulder so his arm was covering it better.

"We're at the end."

"The end of what?"

"Everything."

Cloud was about to say something but Tifa jumped out in front of him. He noticed the torch she carried was very close to being burned out.

"You better relight that thing Teef."

Tifa looked up at him and her eyes were tearing up and sadness gripped every inched of her face.

"Tifa?"

"You remember me Cloud. You REMEMBER me!" She shouted at him, pounding on his chest with her free hand. The torch drew dimmer. "Remember me and we'll find our way back someday. We'll find our way _back_!"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

"What's my name Cloud? Remember my name and you'll remember me. What is it?"

"It's…"

_She looks so sad on that swing._

"I know it… I just have to… think."

_I'll never tell._

"Tifa! I know it's Tifa!"

The torch went out.

_It was just a dream._

_---_

_--_

_--- _

"Tifa." He muttered as he slowly opened his eyes. She stirred in his arms and moaned a bit.

"Cloud?" Her voice came up to him. It was small and quiet.

"Tifa… I know it's Tifa." He said, taking his arm off her and rubbing his eyes. She turned her whole body around on the bed so she was facing him. She shifted a bit closer to him and put a hand on his face.

"What?"

"I… I can't remember… _any_thing."

"Well you seem to remember me." She said playfully and kissed his chest. He smiled at her and ran a hand through her hair.

"Yea…I guess so."

She closed her eyes and laid her head on his arm.

"See," She said, already beginning to fall asleep again. "Everything's fine. It was just a dream."

Cloud's eyes shot at her as she said that last sentence. It seemed… strange. Wrong somehow. Then another phrase came into his head, but it was distorted, like it was behind a wall of mist.

"We'll find our way back someday. We'll find our way back." He mumbled. Tifa was already asleep, it wasn't long before he was to.

---


	21. Rain and Rumors

The rain began on a seemingly average day, when not a single ominous cloud hung in the sky. It swept into the land quickly and secretly like an assassin, and when it came it brought with it an unspeakable amount of dark-purple clouds and forceful winds. It was a sneak attack on the planet, and it would not end for a very long time. With it came the rumors, and _their_ force penetrated much deeper into the hearts of mankind. Their attack; viral. Their force; relentless. Their name; the man in black.

--

It began two weeks earlier. Patty Frothingham was gardening her backyard in a small and worn place known as Rocket Town. Patty tended to her dear garden five times a week, promptly setting about it at nine o'clock in the morning each day. That day was no exception. It was nine fifteen and she was waist-deep kneeling in her garden, pulling any of those pesky weeds she could find that surfaced here and there. She hummed a cheerful melody as she worked, pausing only to wipe the sweat off her brow or take a sip from her bottled water. It was during one of these oh-so-common breaks which she watched as her entire garden - entire _yard_ really - was taken over. The first thought that came to her was that her garden was being swallowed alive by an evil entity hidden beneath the soil of her yard. She thought of the pesky weeds and how maybe they were the creatures hairs. Maybe every time she pulled them, the thing below stirred and came closer to the surface. Oh how foolish she had been to pluck so many! Her imaginative, and slightly idiotic, fantasy came to an end when the rain fell. She lifted her head towards the sky and became the first person to witness the "Clouds of our Doom", as they were later titled by less-imaginative people than Patty Frothingham.

Rows of them poured over the tops of the mountains to the east - purple and military-like in formation. Patty - who never had much bravery in her to say the least - went wide-eyed and fearful. She scurried to her feet and wasted no time heading into her backdoor to get her husband. She left her glass of water outside, which would slowly fill with rain and spill over. Her forgotten tools would rust, and her garden would not need, or receive, tending to for quite some time.

---

--

---

Where the ocean met the eastern continents western coast, people had gathered, and more were coming in droves. It started when Vaner Norman was peddling his surfboard out into the sea to catch some waves. He was thirty five feet from shore when something dark in the sky caught his eye. He stopped peddling his arms and craned his neck forwards with his eyes squinted. Clouds. They were very dark clouds, and it looked like they were headed in his direction.

"Mother of Gaia…" He whispered to himself. Vaner had seen tides come in the size of houses; had explored the deepest seas on a submarine exploration two years ago; had been _inside_ the North Crater, but Vaner had never had his stomach drop into his knees. Until now. He choked up for a second before quickly getting his board turned around and headed back towards land. It wasn't the color or the form or even the size of the clouds that frightened him, it was the sheer number. The mass gathering of something like that. It made him think of death, and he didn't know why.

When Vaner reached land, he ran to his truck and grabbed his cell phone. His conversation went something like this:

"Dude. Get down here. You'll see. Trust me. This is gonna blow your mind man!"

Within the hour, Vaner and his friend had spread the news like a virus and now the people had gathered on the shoreline to watch the army of purple paint its way across the western sky.

Conversations amongst them had become this:

"What is it?" "Where is it coming from?" "Why is this happening?" "Did anyone hear about this on the news?" "Where we supposed to get rain today?" "Rain? That ain't rain baby. That's the river." "This is Shinra's fault." "Yea! I bet Shinra knows what this is about!" "President Rufus… what a hack." "Don't blame the president, blame yourselves!" "Shut up man!" "Hey! Don't tell him to shut up!" "Rain, rain go away, come again some other day." "Shut up."

They stood out there and bickered back and forth for the better part of the day as more people came. But when the clouds had covered up more than half the sky ahead of them, all but two or three brave souls fled the scene. Vaner was among the first to leave.

---

--

---

The people at Shinra did _not_ know what this was about. High up in Shinra tower, on the sixty-eighth floor, a group of senators (which was really just a fancy title for a team of powerless men - President Rufus ran his democracy like a dictator after all) sat at a round-table discussion. Their debate was pointless and not worthy of retelling, so it won't be. The one thing they did agree on was that they were facing a possible pandemic of epic proportions, and that things were likely to get much worse before they got better.

--

Two floors below them, General Rex Arinthone stood at his office window, watching the clouds come at his city of Midgar slowly but relentlessly. The general had a war leaders mind, and so no plan of defense came to his mind. After all you couldn't fight clouds… could you? One thing he knew was that the stinking dogs (the rebels) would suffer the worse if the rain did manage to reach Midgar. They'd be flooded out of their stinking hiding holes and be forced to surface, and when they did _he_ would be there to put them back down.

Despite the gloomy circumstances, Rex smiled.

--

Ten floors down in the military research division of the tower, Denzel was speaking with an old scientist friend of his.

"No Denzel. Never in my life have I seen such a thing. It's a scientific anomaly."

Denzel studied the mans face as he spoke. He was being honest, and that scared Denzel a little bit. He couldn't help to keep his mind from wandering to the origins of this massive storm. Towards the mountains of Nibelheim, where Teioh had told him Marlene was being taken to when they spoke a few weeks earlier. He could have done something then, but he did not. He could do something now, but he _could_ not. Something bad was coming at Midgar, and the entire army had been called onto high alert.

So now as he stood there, speaking with a man that would know more than any other around him, and was being told they didn't know what to do, he feared. He feared and he thought. Thought of Teioh. Thought of Marlene. Thought of Mt. Nibel, and the inevitable oncoming storm. He felt sick.

---

--

---

A chocobo ranch had been built on the border of a patch of woods, fifteen miles south of Nibelheim. It had been built over ten years ago by a good, hard-working man named Milo Stantz. The man had spent his life working a tough nine-to-five factory job, and through all his blood, sweat and tears he kept his dream in mind. Towards the end of his life, the dream was realized, and the chocobo ranch was built - funded by a lifetime of savings. He lived out the final six years of his life happily, before succumbing to a disease and turning the reigns over to his son, Brilo.

Brilo, who had been running the ranch for close to five years now, stood in the entranceway of his barn with his mouth hanging open. Eleven years on the ranch and he'd never seen such a sight. The chocobos - seven of them in all, one blue - had been lazily trotting around their pen outside, chewing on grass and simply being chocobos. Brilo had gone inside to fix himself a glass of iced tea, and when he had returned, their chocobo world had somehow been flipped upside down. All seven were huddled together at the south side of the pen. The ones nearest to it were being squished up against it, their fluffy yellow feathers sticking out through the wooden bars. One chocobo was actually trying to climb up the others. One of its talons must have broke another's skin, because one suddenly began nipping at the climbers neck and squawking.

So now Brilo stood with his mouth open, and his hair beginning to dampen, because when he came back outside it was raining, he just didn't notice. A crack of thunder broke his shock, quickly making him shake his head.

"Hey!" He now called out, back to life. "Git away from there! GIT!"

The chocobos ignored him in unison.

"Git I said!"

Same response.

He knew his efforts were futile. Even if he managed to get in there and try calming a few of them down, he just didn't have the time to stop them before they cracked right through the now-dampened wood bars that formed the southern fence of the pen.

"Bo's! NO!" He cried at them, grabbing fistfuls of wet hair on his head. The wood splintered, and shortly after cracked. The chocobos spilled out into the forest, barely keeping on their feet as they trampled through the narrow path through the fence. "DAMN!" Brilo cried out and stomped his foot. A wave of mud came up and splashed onto his jeans. He looked down at it, scratched his chin, looked back up at the strange purple clouds above him, and went back inside the house to get his raincoat muttering about rain and "damn bo's".

---

--

---

North Corel, one of the very first towns to be swallowed whole by the mass gathering of clouds, had turned into a panicked frenzy. The rain fell particularly heavy around the mountains, and had succeeded in turning the ground of the small mining town into a muddy wasteland in that one short hour. At the one hour and twenty minute mark, a piece of softened land gave up its hold on the mountainside, giving way to a rather large rockslide that demolished part of the railroad and was only thirty-two feet away from ripping apart Jemma Stevenson's home. Jemma Stevenson knew nothing of the near-catastrophic rockslide, because she (along with half the town) had already split the scene. Those who left did so quickly and quite angrily. Brock Maching led the first group of twenty-or-so storm refugees (as he called them) out of town, demanding that if the rest of the townsfolk valued their lives they'd get the hell out as soon as possible.

Most listened, and after nearly two and a half hours of heavy, relentless rain, the place had practically become a ghost town. The remained were: Old Man Ghee; Old Man Ghee's granddaughter Lynn; and Old Man Ghee's trusty mutt of a dog - Sammo.

Ghee had lived in Corel since he was seven years old (close to a century ago). He had lived through the good times and the bad. The hard times and the harder times. He had no intentions of a silly storm chasing him away from the town he helped grow. Helped _build_. So when all the good folks were packing up shop and heading for the hills (_from the hills_, Ghee thought), Ghee sat on his front porch wearing his overalls, a smile, and an old pipe he had made himself when he was twenty six and had first started the nasty habit of tobacco-smoking. Some of the people that fled past him carrying what silly items from their homes they deemed important enough to merit saving from this "oh-so-dreadful storm" tried coaxing the old timer to come with them. When he refused and called them fools they begged him to at least let someone take the girl.

Lynn, who was tiny but tall for a six-year-old, simply stood by her grandpas side with a determined - if not slightly confused - look on her face and shook her head. She wouldn't leave her grandpa's side. Ghee grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess she ain't scared of no rain neither!" Ghee stated, barely holding the laughter back behind his yellowed teeth. A few people had actually gathered and planned to _take_ Lynn with them, but when they approached the porch, Sammo - who "wasn't no slouch of a mutt" in Ghee's words - jumped to a defensive position between the two sides, growling and showing teeth. The townsfolk cursed Ghee and called him stupid with senility. Ghee laughed and said he'd have to buy a fancy book to look _that_ word up.

Ghee didn't have to deal with them folks no more though. All _them_ folks had long-since tucked their tails between their legs and abandoned their homes. Now it was just him and his granddaughter. Sammo barked, and Ghee thought the dog was reading his mind.

_You too old boy… you too._

Funny thing was that ole' Sammo seemed to understand Ghee more and more as they were both getting older. Ghee looked at the mutt and appreciated the near twenty years of companionship.

"Yep. Storm will be over soon hun." Ghee said, taking his sweet Lynn by the hand and leading her out in front of him. Her petite hand was precious and fragile in the old toughened claw of Ghee. He pulled her gently towards him and she scooted up on his knee.

"I'm scared Gramp" She whispered in that heartbreaking way only a child can whisper.

"Oooooh no baby girl!" Ghee said leaning back and showing her a big smile on his face. "It's just a little storm Lynn! It'll pass and all them folks will come running back up _here_ to _us_! We're just saving a trip, that's all."

"You sure?"

"Sure? Of course! Hey, if you don't trust me, trust old Sammo there. If something was wrong, don't you think Sammo woulda yanked me outta this place by my fingers?"

Ghee pulled at Lynn's little fingers and she giggled. Ghee smiled with her, but in his head the first sign of danger had crept up into it. Just over Lynn's shoulder, Sammo was sitting at the edge of his porch with his ears perked up and his tail still. Ghee looked at the dog, then followed his line of vision. Sammo was looking at the steep section of mountain a hundred feet away or so from their home. Dark purple, nearly blackened, clouds swept over it and traveled out eastwards behind him. Ghee felt something uncomfortable land in his stomach for the first time.

One half of an hour later, the rain had not quit as Ghee had predicted. If anything, it had worsened and that steep section of mountain began to look like a steep section of death as the land near the bottom of it muddied up and moved around in the rain.

Lynn had fallen asleep in her grandfathers lap as he sang her a song that his old mind could barely put together - several times he hummed out the melody in place of words long since forgotten - and now he had finally realized what the folks meant when they called him "stupid with senility".

"Sammo! Get over her you mangy mutt of a dog you!" He whisper-yelled to the dog who was still perched at the edge of the porch, standing guard like some ancient statue. Sammo turned his neck to look at him, and when Ghee saw the dogs face he thought it really could read his mind.

"Sammo you gotta take her outta here old boy. You know that don't you?"

Sammo had no response but to keep staring at Ghee.

"Yea.. I know you do."

Sammo shifted his position and whimpered a bit.

"Can't come witchya this time boy. These old legs won't make it halfway before I wind up falling down and splitting my senile wig."

Ghee beckoned the dog to him with a gesture of his hand, and Sammo was instantly beneath his hand, licking it while he tried to pet him.

"Lynnie. Lynnie time to go hun." Ghee said, gently tugging at his granddaughter's shoulder. Lynn awakened looking happy, her eyes unfocused and distant. Ghee wished he was wherever she had been five seconds ago. "Girly, it's time to go." He told her.

Lynn looked around and upon remembering where she was and seeing the storm was still going on, a look of pure horror fell over her face.

"Grampaaaaa." She whined and gripped his shirt with both her fists.

"Time to go Lynn. Get busy getting busy now."

Lynn jumped off his lap quickly, seeming to be quite relieved. She took a step forward and her hand instinctively went up to take an adults hand when she reached the edge of the porch. Ghee smiled at that, but there was a lifetime of sadness behind it.

"Take Sammo by the collar there sweety. Sammo's gonna hold your hand."

Lynn looked back at her grandpa confused.

"Go on girly. Take Sammo by the collar now." Ghee repeated, giving a glance down at Sammo's face, which looked old and worn and kind of sad back-dropped by the grey rain. The dog whimpered and Ghee shook his head. "You go on now."

"What about y-"

"I got a special invitation to somewhere real nice!" Ghee cut her off. "Yep, somewhere real nice and pretty too."

Now Lynn just looked curious.

"Where?" She demanded.

"Ooh, yep. Lifetime pass right up to Gold Saucer there!"

Lynn's face lit up.

"Gold Saucer! I wanna go! I wanna go!"

"Sorry kiddo, they only sent me this one pass. Says you gotta be over the age of twenty to use it. Say… you ain't twenty yet are ya?"

"I'm only six." She said sadly, looking down at her feet.

"Well, that means its just me going then. Sammo their don't quite make the cut neither. Just an old timer like me going there I guess."

Lynn looked at him with a solemn face, and Ghee saw a wiseness in her that was years beyond her. There was a silence between them, only filled by the constant patter of rain in mud puddles.

"Go on Sammo. Take Lynn down the mountain now."

"Goodbye Grampa." Lynn said, as Sammo walked beside her, allowing her to slip her hand around his collar.

"You tell your mother I love her very much Lynn."

Lynn nodded her head. Her mother worked in Costa Del Sol. They'd meet soon enough. Lynn hopped off the porch into the rain. Sammo went with her.

"Sammo! Take care of her you old mutt!" Ghee called out to them with a smile on his face.

Sammo looked back at his old master, then up to his new master. Lynn pet him on the head and then waved goodbye to her grandpa. Five minutes later and they were lost behind a wall of misty rain.

Ghee sighed and leaned back in his chair. He thought about lighting up another pipe, but decided against it after some debate. Twas a nasty habit, not worthy of an old mans time. It was that moment that Ghee made an ironic discovery that first made him laugh, then made him kind of sad that he would have no one around to tell it to.

_Mankind's biggest flaw! _Ghee thought as he wrapped two bony hands around the back of his head and leaned even further back in his chair. _We get old and we wisen up… but by then it's too late._

He laughed out loud to himself over that one quite heartily.

A massive landslide consumed the town not ten minutes later.

---

--

---

Before nightfall of the first day, the sky had been blanketed - the sun blotted out. Darkness fell onto the land like a hungry entity that had been waiting to feast. Rain came to the ground in never-ending lines, racing into the earth only to be absorbed and turn dirt to mud. By the time the sun actually went down and the land was _truly_black, the ocean had risen to an alarming level - threatening to overtake costal towns and villages like Junon and Costa Del Sol. Wutai had been preparing a massive transit movement for the entire village - their island was being swallowed whole by the ocean. Midgar had turned into a war zone after dark. The city's power took a twenty minute hit when a nearby generator was flooded and ruined, and five minutes after that happened panic broke out in the streets and hadn't ended since - not even _with_ the power back on. Shinra soldiers did their best to keep order. It was not enough.

Seeking refuge from the increasingly dangerous streets, a fifteen year old boy from the slum sector of lower Midgar slipped through the black and wet alleyways that had been permanently stamped with a fungus-like odor and littered with cats, trash, and homeless people. He flipped his collar and hunched his shoulders and made his way all the way to the outer wall of the city, where he then proceeded to hop it - much to the amusement of a one-eyed man who had been sleeping under a damp piece of wood nearby. The kid climbed and climbed, and when he reached the top, he slung his left leg over and took in the sight of the city from his perched position. It was dark, to say the least. He turned his head back the other way and got ready to climb down to freedom from the mass hysteria inside those walls.

That is when Tines McMurphy became the first person (like Patty Frothingham before him) to witness a terrible thing.

When Tines got back that night (he never wound up going to the other side of the wall) he slipped into his room and lay in his bed for as long as he could, which wasn't that long at all. He then raced downstairs and replayed what he had seen to his older sister.

That's when the rumors began.

---

--

---

The second day was not as bad. The rain fell to a drizzle. The clouds remained, laying dormant and quiet in the sky. And as the rest of the planet was getting their act together, trying to regain balance and composure, the small town of Cosmo Canyon was way ahead of them.

It was mostly because they had a leader - a figure to stand behind and let guide them. He would have much to say, and he'd get his chance. People from all over the continent had gathered there by the morning of the next day. Cosmo Canyon had always been a place devoted to the study of the planet and the way things worked. _Why_ they worked. Now people wanted answers, and they demanded them from Cosmo Canyons spiritual and physical leader.

Red XIII had his work cut out for him on the second day.

--


End file.
